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t S. BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



JOURNAL 



OF THE 



SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE 



OF THE 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS 



WITH 



THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES CO OPERATING 
WITH THE GOVERNMENT, AND REPORTS OF THEIR 
WORK AMONG THE INDIANS 



WASHINGTON, D* C, JANUARY 15, 1873* 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINT I NG 
1 8 7 3. 



<i 

OFFICE. 



JOURNAL OF THE SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE 
OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS 



Washington, January 15, 1873. 

A meeting of conference was held by the Board of Indian Commis- 
sioners with the representation of the missionary boards, engaged in 
Indian missionary work, at the "Arlington," Washington, D. 0., at 10 
a. m., Wednesday, January 15, 1873. 

There were in attendance Commissioners Felix R. Brunot, (chairman,) 
Dodge, Bishop, Campbell, Lang, Tobey, and Far well, and T. K. Cree, 
•secretary of the Board of Indian Commissioners, and the following rep- 
resentatives of the mission boards of the churches engaged in Indian 
work : 

Eev. S. B. Treat, D. D., secretary American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions ; Rev. Jay L. Backus, I). D., secretary American 
Baptist Home Missionary Association ; Rev. George Whipple, D. D., 
secretary American Missionary Association; Rev. George Deshon, 
Roman Catholic Missions ; Rev. John C. Lowrie, D. D., secretary Pres- 
byterian Board of Foreign Missions; Rev. R. L. Dashiell, correspond 
ing secretary Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society ; Colonel E. 0. 
Kemble, secretary Protestant Episcopal Indian Commission ; Rev. John 
G. Brown, D. D., secretary Board Home Missions United Presbyterian 
€hurch ; Rev. J. M. Ferris, D. D., Reformed Hutch Church Mission 
Society; Rev. W. L. Hayden, Christian Missionary Convention; Hr. 
William Nicholson, Cyrus Beede, Benjamin Tatham, Thomas Wistar, 
F. T. King, Society of Friends, (Orthodox;) Samuel M. Janney, Daniel 
Foulke, Hillwyn Parrish, B. Rush Roberts, Richard T. Bentley, (Hick- 
site ;) Rev. John T. Sargent, secretary Massachusetts Indian Commission; 
Aaron M. Powell, New York Indian Aid Society; R't Rev. William Hobart 
Hare, missionary bishop of Niobrara ; Bishop Harris, Methodist Epis- 
copal Church; Edward P. Smith, American Missionary Association; Hon, 
William Welch and Mr. King, Protestant Episcopal indian Commission ; 
Hon. C. Cole, United States Senate ; Hon. John W. Stevenson, United 
States Senate; Hon. C. B. Farwell, House of Representatives ; Colonel 
Phillips, member-elect to^ House of Representatives ; and William P. 
Ross and other representatives of the civilized tribes in the Indian Ter- 
ritory ; General O. O. Howard, United States Army, and many other 
friends of the Indians. 

The chairman called upon Right Rev. Bishop Whipple to open the 
meeting with prayer, after which he said : 

In behalf of the Board of Indian Commissioners it gives me pleas- 
ure to welcome you most cordially, and to say that we appreciate the 
effort made by the missionary boards of all the churches in co-operating 
with our endeavor to civilize and christianize the Indian wards of the 
nation. Much has already been accomplished toward civilizing the In- 
dian race ; their condition has been much improved, and a more just ad- 
ministration of the laws and designs of the Government pertaining to 
them has been secured by the co-operation of the missionary boards 
that you represent. W T e invited you to meet with us as the representa- 



4 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



tives of these boards that we may hear such statements as you may 
have to make in regard to the progress of the work, and suggestions as 
to the needs of it, to the end that we may secure greater efficiency and 
insure continued progress. It is believed in thus meeting together 
much good may be accomplished for the future. So much has already 
been accomplished as to make it almost certain that if four years more 
of the present Indian policy is pursued, there will be no question of the 
same humane and just policy being adhered to so long as an Indian policy 
by our Government is necessary. There has been much pressure 
brought to bear upon the administration to induce a change in the In- 
dian policy, but public opinion has sustained it in its high aims. But 
as difficulties are met with not ouly by the administration and the 
friends of the Indians, but by the agents in the field, it is necessary 
that public opinion should support them, also, in carrying out the 
designs of the system. The board will not attempt to instruct the mis- 
sionary societies in their duties, but will ask such recommendations 
from them as their experience in the work may suggest as necessary in 
successfully carrying it on. There are, h,owever, some points which we 
think essential to success. 

First in importance is the selecting of agents who represent you in 
the field. The very best attainable men should be secured to fill these 
important positions. 

Second. The employes should all be married men of Christian, or, at 
least, good moral character ; and the agent should be held responsible 
for their right doing. In some cases in which the agents you have 
nominated have been Christian men, disposed to do right and to en- 
deavor to civilize and christianize the Indian, those about them as 
subordinate officials have not been men of the same character, and the 
efforts of the agents have been thwarted. The missionary societies 
ought to know not only that the agent is a proper man for his position, 
but that all his employes are men of good character, and they should 
exercise a careful supervision of the agencies committed to them, and see 
that they are perfectly conducted. I might cite many other needs of 
the service, but they have, doubtless, all suggested themselves to you, 
and will be brought out more fully in the reports of your own experi- 
ence in the work. 

I will call upon the representatives in alphabetical order and will ask 
them to give the result of their experience in the operations of the past 
year. 

Mr. Welch. The gentlemen that have been invited to meet with the 
Board, and who have listened to your statement in regard to the kind of 
agents that are necessary, would like to confer with you in regard to 
the difficulties they meet with in the field. We secure an agent of the 
right kind — one desirous of doing his duty — and the communities living 
about him, interested in defrauding the people committed to his care, in 
every way endeavor to thwart him, and even here such agents are 
threatened with removal by men of influence if they continue to stand 
between them and their illicit gains. An agent beset by these difficul- 
ties is present to-day. If you need strength and public opinion, will 
you tell us in what direction it is needed! Some men say and think 
that the Indians have no rights that a white man must respect, any 
more than the wild beasts that roam the forest. There are rings that 
are trying to secure the lands that belong to the Indians. On these 
and any other points we would be glad to hear from you, and in this 
Avay we would know what points it is best for the representatives and 
agents to touch upon in their reports. 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



5 



Mr. Brunot. The points to which you refer will, I presume, come up 
in the reports of the representatives of the missionary societies, and 
will thus come before the meeting for consideration, and I think it is 
better to have them presented in that way. 

Mr. Welch. Some who are now present cannot remain until the 
close of the meeting, and points might be brought out thus early in the 
meeting that would be of value to them. Yoar secretary, Mr. tree, is 
here and he is conversant with all the difficulties which agents and others 
meet with, and he might sum up the most important for consideration 
by the meeting. 

Mr. Brunot. We have all noticed the pressure to attack Indians, 
{joining from all quarters, and any one who has watched the proposed 
legislation of the present session of Congress, could not but observe 
how many propositions there are looking to the despoiling of Indians 
and asking legislation unfavorable to them. Many border people seem 
to think that the Government has placed Indians upon these reserva- 
tions as a medium through which the whites may be furnished with 
money, and in order that a better opportunity may be afforded to oppress 
them and despoil them of the Government bounty. We desire that op- 
pression of Indians may be prevented and that wrong against them 
may be punished^ and we desire the assistance of the missionary 
boards in carrying out these designs. The subject is one beset with 
many difficulties in its details, and it is difficult to select any definite 
points and say that such deserve your special effort at this moment. 
We need the continued co-operation of the missionary societies and 
friends of the Indians in getting a correct public opinion and prevent- 
ing the commission of these wrongs. I think that the better mode for 
the conduct of our meeting will be to have these reports, and as the 
meeting progresses, the matters which you have suggested, with the 
modes by which we can best co-operate with each other in preventing 
these things which should be prevented, will develop themselves. I 
therefore propose to ask, in their order, all the representatives of the 
societies that they will make such reports as I have spoken of. I call 
on the Bev. George Whipple. 

Mr. Whipple. If the chairman of the board pleases, I will ask the 
Bev. Mr. Smith, who is the secretary of the American Missionary As- 
sociation, to make a few remarks in relation to the agencies under the 
charge of the Americana Missionary Association. 

Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I am not aware to what extent the board 
desires a report, but I will state that the association has had under 
its charge during the year four agencies, one in Washington Terri- 
tory, one in Minnesota,, and two in Wisconsin. There are in all 
about sixteen or seventeen thousand Indians under their care. 

The agency at Green Bay, under Mr. Bichardson, has had a year of 
prosperity, to which the personal efforts of the agent, aided by friends 
of the Indians, have contributed very much. The consent of the De- 
partment having been obtained by the agent, the Menomonee Indians 
did their own lumbering last winter, and the lumber which they took 
into market realized $20,000, which left to the Indians about $12,000 
net after all expenses were paid. A double benefit thus accrued to the 
Indians, the benefit arising from being the recipients of the proceeds of the 
outlay for subsistence and the encouragement to labor. A great outcry 
was raised by the lumbermen of Wisconsin against this transaction, 
which was officially represented through a Wisconsin Bepresentative in 
the House, and a commission, of which Mr. Turney, of the Board of 
Indian Commissioners, was a member, was appointed by the Secretary 



6 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



of the Interior to inquire into the matter. The report which represented 
the transaction as being in every way a beneficial one, and entirely up- 
right, was entirely satisfactory to the Department. 

Permission for the Indians to lumber was asked for again this year by 
Mr. Bichardson, but owing to the interference of parties in Wisconsin, 
it was not granted. Subsequently, through the misrepresentations of 
interested parties, the Department asked the association to discharge 
Mr. Richardson and nominate another man in his place. 

The agencies at Superior and Chippewa have had a prosperous year 
in many respects, and their schools have gone forward with considera- 
ble success. 

The agency in Minnesota is much more difficult, as it is a larger 
field, the reservations connected with it being scattered all over the 
State. There have been built at the reservations this year, one hun- 
dred and nine comfortable log-houses, IS by 22 feet, with five rooms 
in each house. The work was all done by the Indians, with the excep- 
tion of some portions which actually needed the services of skilled 
carpenters. The lumber has been all sawed by the Indians, and the 
engineer is a full-blood Indian. 

Their crops in the spring were very tine indeed, but they have since 
been all destroyed by the grasshoppers, and there is likely to be suffer- 
ing among them this winter. They have supported themselves by labor 
during the past summer. I think there is no doubt in the minds of the 
association as to the practicability of christianizing these Chippewas, or 
any other Indians under their charge. It is only a question of time 
and patience, of kind and fair dealing, and they think the Govern- 
ment ought to make considerable appropriations to forward the work. 

It is a constant complaint that the new plan is costing more than the 
old one. So it does for the present. I can go into Minnesota and dis- 
tribute their blankets to them or give them their ten dollars per year 
each, and then leave them, and the cost will be much less than staying 
with them and opening schools and farms. But, in the former case, 
the distribution of blankets and their support would have to be con- 
tinued while they exist, while in the latter they will soon become self- 
supporting, valuable citizens, and eventually millions of dollars will be 
saved. The old plan would require a persistent and continued expend- 
iture, while the new plan will soon obviate the necessity for any out- 
lay. I have no question but that a single generation, with the children 
kept in school, will crush the barbarism in Minnesota. 

The Chairman. \Ve would now be pleased to hear from Bishop 
Whipple. 

Bishop Whipple. Mr. Chairman, as the agency in Minnesota is 
more directly under the eye of Mr. Smith, I will not do more than make 
a few remarks upon these agencies. I have been at the W r hite Earth 
agency, and with all the Indians in the northern part of Minnesota, 
and for the first time in my connection with Indian affairs have I 
found an agent and his employes wholly occupied with their labor 
for the Indians. It is not simply that the agent has been faithful. He 
has had to grapple with the most terrible resistance. These things 
should be considered. It is a matter of law. There is no law in the In- 
dian country. The Christian Indian is taught by his teacher that he 
is not to pursue the old plan of acting under the law of instinct. His 
crops may be injured and destroyed, and he is perfectly helpless, as the 
Government has never provided any judicial officer to protect his rights. 
One Indian may kill another in the most populous town, and no ques- 
tions are asked. An Indian has killed another in the streets since I 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



7 



have resided there, and it was considered a matter of no consequence. 
The Government leaves these Indians utterly unprotected. Cases of 
murder are occurring constantly, and an effort to protect these Indians 
brings down great opposition. I think a great deal of Credit is due to 
the wife of the agent. She has taken a great interest in all, endeavor- 
ing to civilize and elevate the Indian women. Mrs. Smith has been 
teaching these women to make soap, and their households have been en- 
tirely renovated; and, so far as I know, every effort which honest, faith- 
ful Christian people could make for the safety of these poor people has 
been made. 

The difficulties in Minnesota grew merely out of the lack of any law 
whatever. The Leech Lake Indians are perhaps one of the worst bodies 
of Indians, in this respect, to be found in the country. They have again 
and again committed murder among their own people. For instance, 
Hole-in-the-Day was killed ; he was chief of the tribe. We have had 
at least twenty such murders committed in open daylight. 

Mr. Whipple. Mr. Chairman, permit me to ask Mr. Welch to make 
a few remarks relative to the Indians of whom we have been speaking. 

Mr. Welch. Mr. Chairman, I had an official interview with General 
Sheridan in regard to the character of these Indians. He stated that 
although considerable trouble was occasioned at times by the Chippe- 
was, and he was compelled to punish them, he did not blame them so 
much, because in nearly every case, they were aggravated by wrongs. 
He felt assured that if the Government would pursue a right and just 
course toward these Indians, a large proportion of the crimes could be 
remedied. I think the Chippewa Indians are the worst band I have 
known in Minnesota. I want to say a word, Mr. Chairman, about these 
Leech Lakes. They are ordered by the government of Minnesota to 
remain on the reservation. They have $4,000 a year for agricultural 
purposes and purposes of tillage, and there are about two thousand of 
them. They could not remain on their reservation and make a living. 
It would be a question of starvation or of disobeying the Government 
authorities. They roam all over Minnesota and are liable to come 
in contact with the whites, who are ordered to drive them back, and if 
necessary raise the militia and force them back. The agent says they 
come up to the reservation and ask me to give them work. I have not a 
dollar of money and cannot get it, yet there are these Indians among 
us, and we are directed by the Department to keep them on the res- 
ervation. They cannot live on the reservation. They came to me last 
summer — more than a hundred of them — and asked me to give them 
work. If I had an appropriation I might give them work. 

Mr. Bbunot. There appear to be two very important facts developed 
by this statement. One of these facts is that it is not admitted that the 
Indians have any right to make a living on the reservation by selling 
the lumber which belongs to them, for thus they may conflict with the 
whites in the neighborhood ; and the other one is this : it has just been 
represented that they are not to have leave to go off the reservation, for 
the purpose of earning a living by labor. 

Mr. Tatham. I propose that these two facts and all other points which 
are, or may be, deemed of interest in the course of the council, be 
especially noted, in order that the condition of these Indians may be 
brought to view at a future time. It is proper that we should hear the 
truth, and I am in hopes that nothing here developed will be lost, and 
that the secretary will make notes of the points as we go on. 

Dr. Nicholson. Our body has charge of the Indians in the Central 
superintendency, which embraces all in the Indian Territory, and a few 



8 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



in Kansas, numbering in all about 18,000, two-thirds of whom are rov- 
ing Indians, differing very much in their habits and modes of life. We 
have fourteen schools — three in Kansas and eleven in the Indian Terri- 
tory. We endeavor to teach the ordinary branches, but are particu- 
larly desirous of imparting moral and religious truths. Our instruction 
in the schools has been, as far as possible, such as will fit the children, 
when they grow up, to take their places in the community as civilized 
people. We have endeavored to teach them that labor is not degrad- 
ing. Our teaching is largely by illustration, using maps, charts, pic- 
tures, and objects, which are familliar to the eyes of the pupils. ~ W^e 
try to be thoroughly practical, and in moral teaching, to illustrate it by 
the lives of those who are sent to instruct them. We teach truth and 
honesty. All their preconceived ideas and practices must be laid aside. 
They readily receive religious instruction, and soon learn to come to 
-God in prayer. They accept religion as a matter of faith. We consider 
this an important feature of our work. We take the boys, place them 
upon farms, and teach them to work, and the result has been very sat- 
isfactory. The girls we place in families, and they are taught how to 
work, keep house, and such things as will be of use to them when they 
come to have homes of their own. Many of the agencies are at remote 
localities, and the difficulties incident to this cannot be appreciated by 
one not familliar with the situation. Some agencies are three hundred 
miles from the railroad. Everything must be transported by ox-teams, 
There are no bridges ; and with every effort on the part of the Govern- 
ment, at times supplies fail to reach the agents when they are most 
needed ; and the Indians, needing food and blankets, become dissatisfied 
and hard to manage. It is very difficult to secure employes of the right 
kind, and at the more distant agencies it is almost impossible to secure 
such, and an agent must take such as he can get. Most of the whites 
whom the agent finds with the Iudians are not such as he would wish 
to employ. Interpreters are unreliable, and it is impossible to get 
Christiansen who speak the language of these wild southern tribes. 
When commissioners go to treat with them, they cannot understand 
what is said, and interpreters may put any construction they wish upon 
what is proposed, and what can we say or do? We are powerless in 
their hands. Sometimes the interpreters, who are usually ignorant men, 
do not fully understand the provisions of the treaties and agreements, 
and do not take the trouble to know that they are correct. 

Intruders upon reservations are a serious difficulty. They will 
come in, and the Government, at times, must be called upon to remove 
them. White Indians, or whites who have been adopted into Indian 
tribes, occasion us much annoyance. They are citizens of the United 
States or Indians, just as it suits their interest to be. They have great 
influence with chiefs, and often decide important questions, adversely 
to the interest of the Indians, if it suits themselves. Many white men 
ask that the Department shall recognize their adoption by Indian tribes. 

The roving habits of many of the tribes is a most serious difficulty. 
We send a good agent and missionary, and they come in contact with 
the'main body of Indians for so short a time that their influence, so far 
as civilization goes, is very slight. Of many of the tribes ninety-niue 
one hundredths are away on the plains, out of reach of the agent much 
of the time, and Christian influences cannot reach such tribes. They 
refuse to leave their children at the schools. The only way to teach 
them, we find, is to have missionaries and teachers go with them. We 
have one such with Kicking Bird's band of Kiowas. He has his quar- 
ters with the chief, and it is easily seen how great an influence for good 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



9 



his constant presence with them in their wanderings will have. He has 
been able to collect many of the children in his " roving school," and we 
anticipate mnch good from his efforts. If we get snch missionaries with 
all the roving bands their influence for good will be more marked than 
any effort the Government has ever made. A tribe cannot go upon a 
raid while the missionary is with them, and the chief is responsible for 
his safety. 

The increased interest of the Indian children in their schools is very 
encouraging to us. The children used to run away from the schools, 
and the agents had to keep their horses saddled most of the time to 
hunt them up and bring them back ; but now so desirous are many of 
them to attend, that when the parents object to their coming, children 
will run away from home to attend. Children who go home during va- 
cations persuade other children to attend, and the schools are as large 
as the present buildings will permit of their being. There are at pres- 
ent four hundred and twenty-five children in our schools. We have sev- 
eral Sabbath-schools, and the children willingly come to them ; and in 
our church and house services, whether regular service or the study of 
the Bible, the adults willingly participate. In our chapel service the 
minister, in some cases, uses only the English language and the inter 
preters translate it to the Indians. Thus religious services have a great 
influence on these tribes. They are evincing more interest in the Sab- 
bath-schools and prayer-meetings, and the influence of them is being 
felt upon all classes. Even the half-breeds, who have been usually the 
hardest class to reach, are becoming awakened. In some cases when 
they have yielded to temptation, they have evinced great penitence, 
and resolved to try again. There is an increased attention to the sanc- 
tity of the marriage tie, and the agents and missionaries have given 
much attention to instructing them in regard to this. Many of the 
chiefs and head-men and others have been regularly married by the 
agent or missionary, the ceremony being performed in the church and 
being made as impressive as possible, and its origin and the law of God 
and man in regard to it explained to them. 

I have prepared a comparative statement showing the condition of 
the Indians in 1808 as compared with 1872. It shows a marked im- 
provement — an increase in population, products, and schools, and in 
everything that goes to make up real growth and advancement in civ- 
ilization. A marked improvement is manifested in the raising of stock. 
It is the natural transition state between roving and farming. The in- 
crease in the Central superintendency in this item is tenfold. 

Mr. Brunot. We will now hear from Mr. Janney, of the Friends, 
(Hicksites.) 

Mr. Janney said : We represent six yearly meetings of Friends, 
namely, Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, Indiana, Ohio, and Genesee. 

The Indian tribes assigned to our care by the President are those liv- 
ing on reservations in the State of Nebraska, designated as the North- 
ern superintendency, comprising six agencies, the Santee Sioux, the 
Wiunebago, the Omaha, the Pawnee, the Otoe, and the Great Nemaha. 

Through a communication recently received from the superintendent, 
Barclay White, we are informed that the conduct of the Indians under 
his care during the past year has been peaceable and orderly, no act of 
violence having been committed by an Indian upon a white person in 
the superintendency. 

The Santee Sioux agency is situated on the Missouri River, about two 
hundred miles north of Omaha. The Indians of this tribe continue 
to improve in the agricultural and mechanical arts. They all wear citi- 



10 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



zens' dress except a few old women. All sleep on bedsteads, eat from 
tables, and sit on chairs. The men work on their allotments and assist 
in building- their own houses. They manifest great satisfaction at the 
issue of wagons, harness, plows, &c, which has been made duriug the 
year, promising to make good use of them, as they consider it an evi- 
dence that the Government desires their welfare and wishes them to 
become an agricultural people, 

The women of this tribe are improving; and in order to instruct them 
in household duties and the care of their children, the Friends have em- 
ployed and sent to their aid a woman of worth and intelligence, whose 
example and teaching are exercising a salutary influence. 

There are two missions at this agency, one of them supported and con- 
ducted by the Episcopalians, the other by the American Board; both of 
them have schools, and hold meetings for divine worship in which the 
services are conducted in the Dakota language. Most of the Indians 
belong to one or the other of the churches, and many of them can read 
and write in their vernacular language. The number of Indians at this 
agency is nine hundred and sixty-five, of whom four hundred and twenty- 
four are males and five hundred and forty-one females. 

The Winnebago agency is situated about eighty miles north of Omaha, 
and the reservation borders on the Missouri Eiver. The improve- 
ment in this tribe during the past year has been very satisfactory. All the 
men have adopted the dress of citizens, and most of them are willing to 
work. At the commencement of the wheat harvest about two hundred 
men of the tribe obtained from the agent permission to leave the reserva- 
tion, in order to seek for work in the neighboring harvest-fields. One of 
the farmers afterward reported that these Indians worked equally as 
well as white laborers, and that without their assistance sufficient la- 
bor could not have been obtained to secure the crops. 

The annual election of chiefs by this tribe, a custom not yet adopted 
elsewhere in the superintendency, is found to work well ; and is consid- 
ered by the superintendent and agent an important step in the right di- 
rection, being calculated to fit them for a higher plane of civilization. 
The hereditary chiefs who were in power some years ago, evince but 
little interest in the improvement of their people, and encourage the old 
superstition. The TVinnebagoes have recently received the patents 
for their lands allotted to them in severalty. They accepted them with 
many grateful expressions, having been anxiously expecting them for 
two years past. More than a year ago some of them had settled on 
their farms in houses which the agency carpenter and his apprentices 
had assisted them to build, and within the last year thirty new houses 
have been completed under contract, which have given them great sat- 
isfaction. They are warm and convenient, having five rooms, and are 
plastered and interlined with tarred paper. Every family that goes into 
one of those houses is supplied with a cooking-stove and a heating-stove, 
a wagon and harness, a bedstead and four chairs. The agency carpenter 
makes tables and cupboards. The new houses have been given to the 
Indian families who showed most industry and desire to improve their 
allotments. The appearance of the reservation has been materially 
changed by being dotted over with these cottages, neatly painted with 
two shades of brown or drab. 

The three day-schools for the Winnebagoes are flourishing, being" 
taught by an efficient corps of teachers. The plans for an industrial 
boarding-school, to accommodate eighty scholars, are in the hands of an 
architect for completion, and the building will be erected as early in the 
spring or summer as practicable. This tribe numbers one thousand four 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



11 



hundred and forty, of whom seven hundred are males and seven hun- 
dred and forty females. 

The Omaha reservation lies adjoining to that of the Winnebagoes, and 
the agency buildings are about seventy miles north of Omaha. 
The Omahas are an orderly and peaceable people, bearing a good char- 
acter among their white neighbors. The men labor in the fields, and 
in favorable seasons raise good crops, a part of which they sell and ap- 
ply the proceeds to useful purposes. They have cut and hauled to their 
saw-mill a large quantity of timber, which has been converted into lum- 
ber, and much of it transported to their several allotments. The agency 
carpenter and his Indian apprentices have built a number of comfortable 
cottages, but for want of sufficient funds the agent's earnest endeavors 
in this direction have been impeded. 

The tribe having accepted the provisions of a recent act of Congress 
authorizing the sale of fifty thousand acres of land from their reserva- 
tion, arrangements are now being made to bring it into market, and we 
have no doubt the proceeds will supply ample funds to build houses, to 
purchase live stock and agricultural implements, and to establish an 
industrial boarding-school. They have now three day-schools and one 
Sabbath-school, which are well conducted, and much prized by the tribe* 
The Omahas number nine hundred and sixty-nine, of whom four hun- 
dred and ninety-seven are males and four hundred and seventy-two 
females. 

The Pawnee agency is about one hundred and fifteen miles west 
from Omaha and a part of their reservation lies near the line of the 
Union Pacific Railroad. The Pawnees have been retarded in their prog- 
ress towards civilization by raids made upon them by war parties of 
the hostile Sioux, generally of the Brule and Ogallala bands. These 
stealthy marauders, lurking near the Pawnee villages, murder and scalp 
such straggling members of the tribe as they may find, and then quickly 
retreat. They have sometimes been captured, but generally elude pur- 
suit. While there is a possibility of these raids the Pawnees are reluc- 
tant to abandon their villages of mud lodges, and to accept of allotments 
on the prairie, which would contribute to their health and progress in 
civilization. As they were about leaving for the buffalo hunt this win- 
ter they had eighty ponies stolen by the Sioux. 

The Pawnee tribe consists of four bands, one of which, the Skeedees, 
being more advanced than the others, is preparing to move out from their 
village next spring and settle on small allotments of land. The chiefs 
in council have accepted the provisions of the act of Congress author- 
izing the sale of fifty thousand acres of land from their reservation, and 
measures are in progress to bring it into market. The sale of this land 
will supply funds to, build houses, to purchase live stock and agricultu- 
ral implements, and to advance them in civilization. Funds are now on 
hand for the erection of an additional building to the Pawnee manual- 
labor boarding-school, which will increase its capacity to nearly one 
hundred pupils. There is one day-school in successful operation, and 
buildings for two others will be constructed as soon as practicable. 

The children now attending school are progressing well in their studies, 
and their parents evince their interest by frequently conducting them 
to school and remaining to witness their exercises. A Sabbath-school 
is in successful operation, and practical Christian women are at work at 
the Indian villages, nursing the sick and teaching the Indian women 
how to fulfill their duties as wives and mothers. This tribe numbers 
two thousand four hundred and forty-seven, of whom nine hundred and 
nine are males and one thousand five hundred and thirty-eight females. 



12 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. ' 



The Otoe and Missouri tribe of Indians live on a reservation in tbe 
southern part of Nebraska, extending over the Kansas line and lying 
about seventy miles west of the Missouri River. Within the last three 
years they have greatly improved in their moral and sanitary condition ; 
they have opened farms and built some houses, and their children are 
enjoying the advantages of a good day-school and a Sabbath-school. 

More than two years ago the agent, with the concurrence of the tribe, 
recommended that eighty thousand acres of their land, being about 
half the reservation, should be sold and the proceeds applied to their 
improvement and civilization. The superintendent approved of the 
recommendation, and a bill was framed and offered in Congress for that 
purpose, but the act was not passed uutil last session. In the mean 
time a growing restlessness was manifested, and a party was formed in 
favor of removal to the Indian Territory. They asked and obtained 
leave from the agent and superintendent to visit the Indian Territory. 
On their return from that trip the superintendent addressed them by 
letter as follows : 

You have been to the Indian Territory, and your agent informs me you wish to sell al* 
your reservation and remove there. If you are all of that mind the way to do it is to give 
your consent in writing, in open council, for the sale of the land (eighty thousand acres) 
which you now have a law to sell. Express your desire in writing in open council to sell 
the remainder of your reservation and remove to the Indian Territory, and if Congress and 
the Great Father approve of your wishes at their great council to be held at Washington 
next winter, and make a law to that effect, you can move to the Indian Territory. 

This proposition being interpreted to the Indians in council they 
declined to adopt the recommendation of the superintendent and refused 
to accept the law of Congress authorizing the sale of eighty thousand 
acres. 

In a letter from Superintendent Barclay White, received last month, 
he says " he held a council with the tribe in the autumn when he found 
they quite ignored the subject of removal and seemed to avoid any 
allusion to it." He believes the tribe is far from united in the desire to 
remove; but he has informed them that whenever they express their 
wishes to him, through their chiefs in open council, he will take proper 
action thereon. 

We feel assured that the act of Congress authorizing a sale of part of 
their land for the purposes stated therein was wise and beneficent. 
Although we believe their removal will not promote their welfare we 
shall not interfere with their independent action, but shall use whatever 
influence we have to secure for them a fair price for whatever lands 
they may conclude to sell. 

The Great Nemaha agency embraces two small tribes, the Iowas and 
the Sacs and Foxes of Missouri, living on adjoining reservations near 
the Missouri River, in Nebraska, and extending over the Kansas line. 

The Iowas have within the last three years given evidence of marked 
improvement. They were formerly a drunken, idle people, now they are 
temperate and industrious, evincing great interest in the education of 
their children, in the furnishing of their houses, and in fencing and 
cultivating their farms. They have a good school and an orphans' home. 
This institution has proved to be a blessing to the tribe, and is worthy 
of more liberal support. This tribe numbers two hundred and twenty- 
five, of whom one hundred and fourteen are males and one hundred and 
eleven females. 

The Sacs and Foxes are only eighty-eight in number ; they have made 
less improvement than any other Indians in the superintendence", many 
of them being addicted to intemperance and idleness. They have re- 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



13 



quested to be removed to the Indian Territory, and arrangements for 
that purpose are now in progress. 

Population. — The whole number of Indians in the Northern superin- 
tendency is six thousand five hundred and ninety-eight, of whom two 
thousand nine hundred and thirty are males and three thousand six 
hundred and sixty-eight females. This shows an average increase 
within the last year of one hundred and eighteen ; all the tribes, except 
two, having gained in numbers. 

Civilization. — In our efforts to promote the civilization of the Indians 
under our care we have endeavored to lead the men by gentle and just 
measures to habits of industry and sobriety, encouraging them by liberal 
compensation for their labor, and building houses for the most indus- 
trious. The allotment of land in severalty to some of the tribes has 
had a salutary influence by supplying additional motives for industry 
and thrift. There has been a marked improvement in this respect, but 
we cannot expect them to abandon suddenly the idle and uncleanly 
habits of savage life. 

We consider it exceedingly important that the Indian women should 
be instructed in domestic duties and in the proper care of their children. 
In order to effect this object we have several pious and intelligent 
women now engaged in this field of missionary labor, whose services 
are well received and very salutary. Oar chief reliance, however, is in 
the education of the children. Most of them are bright and active, 
very observing and apt at learning, and their parents generally encourage 
them in the attendance of school. A system of object-teaching has 
been adopted in our schools which interests the children and fixes their 
attention. The English language only is taught, and we consider it 
very desirable that this should supersede as soon as possible their ver- 
nacular speech, in order that they may assimilate with white people 
and become citizens. 

The children attending our schools are clothed almost entirely with 
materials or ready-made garments sent out by the Society of Friends. 
Those attending the missionary schools at the Santee agency are clothed, 
we believe, by the religious societies having them in charge. The Sab- 
bath-schools at the several agencies are exerting a good influence upon 
the children, and on those of the adults who attend. The basis of in- 
struction consists of lessons from the Bible, with conversation on the 
truths of Christianity adapted to the condition of the learners. 

There are now in the Northern superintendency eleven day-schools 
and one industrial boarding-school in successful operation, with a pros- 
pect of several more schools being established this year. 

The six yearly meetings of Friends, which we represent, have ex- 
pended in the Indian service during the year $12,900. 

Mr. Brunot. Your society feels encouraged by the work that has been 
done, and is satisfied that a continuation of the same policy will in time 
accomplish the purpose sought — the civilization of the Indians. We 
will now hear from Dr. Dashiell, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Dr. Dashiell said: During the past month a change in the adminis- 
tration of affairs iu our office has taken place, and I am not prepared to 
furnish such information as you wish; but Bishop Harris is here; he 
has been connected with this work for twelve years, and he can give 
all the information in regard to it. During the time I have been cor- 
responding secretary a good degree of success seems to have crowned 
our efforts. As secretary of our society, 1 feel that the duty that the 
Government has assigned to us is an important and sacred trust. The 
nomination of agents to the Department has given me more anxiety and 



14 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



care than any other subject that has come before us. We feel that the 
success of this policy depends upon the character of the agents we name. 
We have been embarrassed by some who ought to be in sympathy 
with the policy of the President recommending to us men unfitted for 
the positions. These men ought not to trouble the church with their 
friends, and men in Government positions of influence ought to keep 
their hands off this thing. We will disregard all outside influence, and 
will endeavor to give the services of the very best men that we can 
find. The general conference of our society has appointed a committee 
of two bishops — one m the Northwest and one on the Pacific coast. 
They will thoroughly investigate the subject and will give a full report 
to the next general conference. I will now ask Bishop Harris to speak 
for us. 

Bishop Harris said: It is not necessary that I should say anything 
after what Dr. Dashiell has said. I have had no connection with these 
agents since last May. I came that I might aid Dr. Dashiell in any way 
in discharging our duty as a church to the commission and the Indians. 
We cannot report in full without reports from our agents, and those we 
have not We have, in Oregon and California, special committees of 
ministers and laymen to take an oversight of the work in the various 
agencies of our church on the Pacific coast. These committees have 
made reports and recommendations that have been forwarded to the 
Department. Our society has nominated men from our own denomina- 
tion; but in some cases, when it was thought advisable, have named 
men connected with other churches. With one or two exceptions, the 
men we have nominated have done well. We gave up one agency in 
Oregon to the Catholic church, as they had many members upon it. We 
did not seek for agencies, and at first none were assigned us in which 
we had missions. We did not then understand that the agencies were 
assigned to the denominations that had missions upon them. Some of 
the agencies had two or three different missionary societies working upon 
them. One agency was assigned to our church to make an opening for 
an agent. He was afterward removed ; but we are glad to know that 
it was not on account of dishonesty or immorality. We have sent a 
good man to take his place. I have been informed that our denomina- 
tion is held responsible for the administration of Indian affairs in Mon- 
tana. It is said the superintendent of Indian affairs is not " clean-handed." 
W r e do not know by what influence he was appointed. He may have 
been recommended by members of our denomination ; but we do not 
hold ourselves responsible for the odium of his administration and the 
disgrace of his official misconduct. I believe, with the exception of this 
region, our agents have all been faithful to the Government. In mis- 
sionary work done outside of Government influence (I refer to all except 
schools and the work of agents and employes) we have four or five 
native ministers ordained by our church. We have spent three or four 
thousand dollars annually in support of these ministers. We have a 
very prosperous mission at Yakima agency at very little cost to us. The 
agent is a minister of our church, and every one speaks well of him and 
of his work. In Portland, two years ago, two Indian converts from this 
mission were ordained to the ministry. They are supported in part by 
our society. One is engaged at the Klamath agency, and is supported 
entirely by our church. We have missionaries at two other agencies in 
Oregon, where we had none when they were assigned to us. It is the design 
of our church to plant a mission at each of the reservations assigned 
to us. A contingent fund for Indian-mission work was placed at the 
disposal of a committee of bishops, to be used during the year, how and 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



15 



where they think best. This committee is to give special attention to 
Indian evangelization. What the result will be I cannot tell. These 
bishops will visit the agencies and report on their spiritual and temporal 
condition. When this commission thinks that the work can be better 
done by others at any agency, we are ready to relinquish it. We have 
no end in view but the good of the Indians and of the service, and when 
better administration of affairs at an agency can be secured by others, I 
am ready to resign it to them. The civilization and Ohristianization of 
the Indians must go together. If the Government and the churches 
would turn their attention to Indian evangelization, they would much 
more rapidly accomplish their civilization. 

Mr. Brtjnot. We will now hear from Rev. Dr. Lowrie, of the Presby- 
terian board. 

Dr. Lowrie said : I am very happy to attend this conference as a 
learner ; we desire to learn from the experience of others who are suc- 
cessfully engaged in the same work. In regard to the working of the 
Indian-agency system, as connected with the Presbyterian Church, all 
the agencies committed to us were assigned us without any effort on 
our part to possess them, or knowledge that such a disposition of them 
was proposed. At first we accepted them with reluctance, but have 
since come cordially into the arrangement. In the appointment of 
agents, nearly all the agencies in New Mexico were tendered to ns, be- 
cause our church had a mission among the Navajoes. The trust was 
accepted with much reluctance, because we knew many of them were 
the worst set of Indians to manage on the continent; I refer more par- 
ticularly to the Apaches ; but we accepted the trust. Nine agencies 
were tendered us. All have been supplied with the best men we could 
find, and if on trial it is found any are not the best men for the position, 
they are to be removed. In one or two instances changes have been 
made, not on account of character, but lack of adaptation. Five out of 
nine of the agents have been with tribes not upon any reservation, 
wandering tribes with whom they are*not able to accomplish much in 
the way of education or civilization. This is particularly the case with 
the Apaches and the Uintah Valley agency. In the Indian Territory 
we have two missions ; the tribes are almost civilized, and the agents 
have not much to do ; many of the other tribes are well advanced. The 
past has been a trying year to most of our agents ; one of them, Mr. 
Miller, agent of the Navajoes, was killed by a party of Utes. In New 
Mexico we have two agents, but there are many reasons for discourage- 
ment. The agents went from the highest motives, but found the In- 
dians wild rovers, and they find they can accomplish but little. In 
regard to the support of Indian agents, a year ago I was in a minority 
who said their salaries were large enough ; the agents think such a 
statement rank heresy. I will explain why I think so. The salary is 
$1,500 per year. On inquiry I was informed that a place of residence 
was furnished and transportation to it was paid. We stated these facts 
to those whom we desired to appoint, but afterward ascertained that no 
transportation was allowed.* There is a great inequality in this matter 
in regard to the houses for agents ; some have good houses, others none 
of any kind. I still think $1,500, with a house and garden, as iu Kan- 
sas, or places equally well situated, is a sufficient salary. Agents have 
said it was, and so I intended to say last year. In New Mexico our 
agents find a single room, and have to pay rent for it, and in this room 
in one case the agent's wife gathered the Indian children and tried to teach 
them something. So uncomfortable were the quarters, and so high was the 

* Transportation is allowed to the agent, but not to Lis family. 



16 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



price of living, that the agent soon gave up the position. At another 
agency there was no house, and the a gent had to leave his family two hun- 
dred miles away, losing the influence and example of a Christian home 
to the agency. The Secretary of the Interior thinks this inequality 
ought to be remedied. We find it increasingly difficult to procure good 
men to fill these isolated positions. I hope the Board will take some 
action on this question ; yet I still say, with all these defects, it is a 
larger support than we give our missionaries among the Indians, and 
if the salary is a large one, you tempt men not fitted, to apply for these 
positions. When it is practicable, I think it is wise to have the agent 
and missionary of the same denomination ; but when there are two or 
three missions on the same agency, it cannot be done. We had a 
mission for twenty years among the Omahas, and that agency, I think, 
ought to be in our hands. In New Mexico the Tillage Indians are 
peaceable; the Apaches and Navajdes are not. I do not think those 
Village Indians are in charge of any denomination. We have two 
teachers among them, at salaries of $600 each, which we supplement. 
The Pueblo Indians have never been taught to read and write. Perhaps 
out of hundreds a dozen or score may read and write. A clergyman who 
endeavored to teach them w T as prevented. As regards teachers em- 
ployed as missionaries, or imparting religious instruction, we do not ask 
any support. But, for schools separate from religious teaching, we think 
the Government ought to pay for such. Our board cannot erect build- 
ings, and cannot get titles "to lands on which to put them. W T e have 
urged the Government to put up buildings for schools, and give the use 
of them to the missionaries free, and save the board the expense of 
erecting buildings. We put up a building among the Kickapoos, which 
cost us many thousands of dollars. It was erected by permission of the 
Government, but it is all lost to us now. Impress the point that the 
Government ought to own and control the school-buildings. W r e have 
spent $25,000 from the funds of our board during the past year, and 
are ready to sanction any necessary expense. We have tried to have 
schools in every place at which we have an agency. Among the Nez- 
Perces there has been a great work of grace; a large number have been 
brought to the Saviour. Rev. Mr. Spaulding received a warm welcome, 
and his ministry is very successful. Our church is deeply interested in 
the new Indian policy. It is a great work the boards are doing, and in 
placing Christian men in charge of these agencies, the Government has 
done a great work. The people will stand up for any administration 
that will do justice to the Indians, and try and promote their welfare. 

Commissioner Brtjnot. I will now call upon Mr. W T elch, of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church, to report. 

Mr. Welch. Eight agencies were assigned by Secretary Cox to our 
church. We did not want so many, and objected to it. Secretary Cox 
said it could not be changed. Devil's Lake was given to us, but as the 
Catholic Church had a mission there, we gave it to them. Lake Traverse 
was given to the Congregational Church, as it had a mission there. The 
Shoshone agency in Wyoming, the agent asked to be appointed to ; his 
son, a noble boy," had been killed by Indians, and the parents wanted to 
do what they could for this people. Charges were made against him, 
but the chairman of the Board investigated them, and the charges w ere 
not sustained. The Shoshones are a roving people, tractable and easily 
.managed. The Bed Cloud Indians have been in our care only about 
one year. They were in a bad condition when Dr. Daniels took charge 
of them. He hopes soon to have them farming. One of the fiercest 
warriors, Red Dog, has, since his visit to the East, been on a peace mis- 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



17 



si on to his wilder brothers, and Bed Cloud wrote a letter counseling 
peace. Whisky is the source of much evil. A gentleman wrote me 
that a murder which was committed a short time ago was directly the 
result of whisky. If we would keep whisky from the Indians, it must be 
kept from the Government traders. 

The report from the wilder Sioux is very favorable. The Upper Brule 
a gency, under Spotted Tail, Agent Risley writes very favorably of. 
Under the orders no employe or other white man is allowed on the 
reservation living with an Indian woman, unless married in the regular 
church manner. All those Indians will, we hope, be upon the reserva- 
tion by spring. These Indians made a very favorable impression when 
in the East during the past summer. Spotted Tail said, when looking 
around, " Why are these people so happy?'' and told his people they 
must be Christians if they would do well. They are asking for 
churches and schools among them. Our church is conservative. We 
accepted the trust unwillingly, but we now go into it With enthusiasm. 
The last act of our church was the consecration of a bishop to go 
among these people. 

Farther up the Missouri is the Cheyenne River agency. It is occu- 
pied by wild, roving Indians. The Poncas are imposed upon by these 
wilder Indians. When among these Poncas, in June, I found former 
warriors now peace- makers. They have erected over a hundred houses. 

The m missionaries have established homes at the little villages which 
they are forming. They were building houses when I was there, and are 
building much more freely now. Some of the men who were warriors, 
and were fiercest in the fight, are now settling down and becoming civ- 
ilized. There are others, who are very bad Indians, who come in, 
and occasionally commit murder and other depredations ; and when 
officers have gone out alone or in small hunting parties, one or two 
of them have been killed. One was seriously wounded, lately ; but the 
progress of that agency has been such as to thoroughly encourage us, 
not because of any rapid change, for we suppose that it may take, per- 
haps, one-tenth part of the time to civilize Indians that it did to civil- 
ize our own race ; but w r e are encouraged greatly as to the final result. 
We are willing to go on slowly, and I must confess that some of the 
men who had been leaders in the fight, for instance Little Swan, and other 
men of that character, in their conference with me seemed to be entirely 
reasonable. They made no singlepoint that was not tenable, and appeared 
to talk like rational and reasonable men. The difficulties they meet with 
are very great indeed. The Sioux Indians have been put on land on which 
a white farmer could not live. Lt is an alkalic soil, incapable of irriga- 
tion, subject not only to the grasshoppers, but to very great droughts; 
and hence it is a very great question what can be done. Fortunately, 
they are a little encouraged in consequence of the peace-commission 
treaty concluded four years ago. All the Indians who settled on that 
reservation are entitled to a pair of oxen and to a cow ; and after my 
return, the Secretary of the Interior, after the conference with the In- 
dians, promised to fulfill that part of the treaty stipulations. It had 
never been offered to them before, and they said that the agents never 
had claimed it. The Department wrote six weeks since to obtain the 
names of all the Indians on the Grand River, and all who come in under 
that treaty, and they have agreed to furnish a pair of oxen and a cow 
to each. That will encourage these Indians very much. They are much 
gratified, and are now building houses rapidly. 

The next agency beloAv that is the Pawnee, with several agencies on the 
opposite side of the river in which are the Lower Brules. There they are 
2 I c 



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BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



being fed, &c, but seem to be more backward in receiving education and in 
improvements than those above, and less disposed to build houses. 
We have just sent two noble young- men as missionaries, and three 
ladies experienced in that work, and they are now so occupied. One of 
the ladies has been there four months, has opened a school, and has 
been very successful indeed. On the opposite bank of the river with the 
Lower Brule we have a missionary, a teacher, and two ladies. AH of 
them have been experienced before with the Indians lower down the 
river. They will have to get hold by slow process of the Lower Brules, 
who are quite intelligent, but have imbibed from their medicine-men 
natural prejudices against Christianity; but by thorough kindness, we 
find no difficulty in overcoming that. 

As we descend the river, coming to the Yankton reservation, the pro- 
gress has been very encouraging indeed. There, four years ago, we 
could not hire a man to carry a bucket of water. The Sioux were the 
laborers. They came up and harvested for these people, who looked 
at them entirely as beneath them. Then, no man labored. You could, 
see the women pack the wood on their backs, struggling along, 
and now, I think, there are nearly two hundred wagons iu which you 
can see men and their wives riding, as you would observe the farmer and 
his wife riding in our eastern sections. They are building many houses ; 
they have three chapels and school-houses which are very well attended, 
and Christianity, and of coarse civilization, have taken deep hold upon 
them. They are, however, discouraged by reason of the nature of their 
soil. They have to go to the Missouri Eiver for all their water, not 
being able to dig wells deep enough to get anything but alkali water. 
They depend entirely upon the rains, there being no way of irrigating. 
They may be able to have wheat, but the corn crop is very uncertain. 
These Yauktons have taken hold of their work ; labor is dignified 
among them; the marriage rite is being observed; many of them are 
united according to the rites of Christianity ; many chiefs have put 
away all but one wife, and I cannot conceive of the influence of Chris- 
tianity being exerted more rapidly than it is there. The board have 
a man there, Mr. Williams, a very excellent man, and the mission 
there, also, is very successful indeed. Nearly all the chiefs are under 
decided Christian influence. There is only one whom I considered a 
heathen chief, and whom I dined with at the agency with Bishop Whip- 
ple, other Indians being there. They all adopted the habits of civiliza- 
tion at the table, and behaved as other civilized men. A few Of the 
young men we have sent down to Nebraska College for education. 
At the end of the first year the principal of that college gave them 
the highest premium of any there, especially for biblical learning. 
They had certificates of the highest character. When they returned, 
the influence of one of them was so great, that one of the chiefs of the 
tribe, feeling that it was his only hope, and the hope of his people, 
has adopted civilized life, has become a Christian man, came to live 
in the mission-house for awhile, and was entirely willing to begin by 
sweeping, dusting, splitting wood, &c, as white people do. He is now at 
the college, has been there about two months, and we have most excellent 
accounts of him. This is the first time we have had a chief who has 
been willing to go away from his tribe for the purpose of being educated. 
Several of the other chiefs are Christian men, and exert a powerful 
influence over the others. They keep them from following their roving 
habits, from hunting and visiting their neighbors, after the annuity 
goods are distributed in the fall; lersaade them to get their crops in, 
and generally benefit their condition. 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



19 



Ordinarily, these Indians take a tramp up the river, and communi- 
cate to the principal tribes what advantages they have had from the 
presentation of the annuities, those tribes in turn coming down and vis- 
iting them. A large delegation came on my second visit, and they were 
much delighted. One of these wild men came down, said his nephew 
had been very ill indeed, and that the ladies had been extremely kind to 
him ; so that he thought Christianity was " good medicine," and he was 
going to recommend it to his people. One of the set, an extremely wild 
fellow, would shake hands with none of us, but satin the corner as sullenly 
as possible. He was afraid of losing caste with his people, for you 
must understand that the wild Indians, the moment they adopt civilized 
life, lose caste with the others, and some men, like Spotted Tail, are adroit 
enough to keep up that illusion among their tribes. When Spotted 
Tail was here in Washington, new suits of clothing were given to almost 
ail his party. When going down to visit the President, he told the 
men to put on their new suits. They asked him if he was going to put 
his on. He said " That is no. business of yours." Well, these others 
draped themselves like gentlemen, in black, but he went in a red blanket. 
And Spotted Tail would go back and say that he did not take oft' his 
blanket. It was to obtain an influence with the other men. Yon can 
hardly understand that, when they get back, they lose caste. 

We see everything to encourage us if we persevere — if the Govern- 
ment can remain stable, and sustain us in our operations. Our 
church, since we were here last, must have spent some thirty or forty 
thousand dollars, and yet that is very little in comparison to what we 
see ought to be done. The schools have been very successful. 

The other reservation is just on the very border of the great Sioux terri- 
tory. It is a small tribe of thoroughly heathen peoi>le, and until quite lately^ 
had been utterly neglected. We have had a missionary there for more 
than a year now, and have three ladies. I have visited them this season. 
The change wrought has been marvelous. Many of them dress like 
civilized beings, and are manifesting a very great disposition for civili- 
zation. We also endeavor, through the aid of the ladies, to Christianize 
and civilize the women. We not only have our schools and Sunday- 
schools, but our mothers' meetings, where the women are taught to cut 
out and fit work. They appear to manifest great aptitude for it, and a 
great desire to improve. The little accounts which are written of these 
meetings, showing how pleased the women were when they first fitted a 
dress for their children, and that they manifested in other ways their 
delight at improvement in housekeeping, are deeply interesting. I will 
not, however, detain you on that point. 

The next mission is that of the Santee ; and as Bishop Whipple is 
here, I will ask him to add a word or two, because I induced him to go 
there with me last October. He saw these creatures in Minnesota, 
where they were wild men, and I thought I would like to have him look 
at them in their present condition, so that he could see the improvement 
which had been made in them since they had left Minnesota. 

Bishop Whipple. Mr. Chairman, I do not desire to detain you but 
a very few moments ; but there are two or three matters which I am 
very desirous to bring before your Board. 

In the first place, I would say that my wildest dream of what might 
be done for the Indians has been accomplished. I had never con- 
ceived in my heart that a work could be done for the Indians equal to 
that which has been done within the last ten years, and more especially 
during the last four years in which we have had the co-operation of a 
Christian Government. I have taken pains to trace the history of the 



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BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



breaking up of tlie Indian missions in the past, and I could bring the 
evidence, in very many instances, of missions which have been broken 
np, through the influence of parties who represented the American Gov- 
ernment directly or indirectly; and I am very sorry to say that, when 
I first visited these Indians of Minnesota, in two or three instances I had 
individuals ask me whether the Jesus that I had told them about was 
the Jesus that my white brothers spoke to when they were angry and 
drunk, at the agency ; and when I urged the sanctity of Christian 
marriage invariably the old chiefs told me in private, that the 
penalty for violation of the seventh commandment was that the 
woman's nose should be bitten off; that was the penalty of their 
fathers, and all the corruption and degradation had come from men 
of the white race. They very often said to me, " We have never 
made fire-water. We do not know how to make it. It is your white- 
brothers; they who worship the Great Spirit ; they have brought this 
here. Go back and tell that story to your brothers." 

In every single instance where crime -has dragged this poor and 
wretched people down to death and degradation, it could be at once 
laid at the door of our own white race. 

But there were two or three things that encouraged me. The first 
was, that if this was a dying race there was but one question : Are they 
to live beyond the grave? And the very fact that they were a perish- 
ing race was but the very reason why a Christian movement should be 
made in earnest to try and bring to them the blessings of the gospel of 
Christ; and another fact was this, that if they were a heathen people, 
there were no such awful revelations to impart among them as there 
were in heathen civilization to whom the gospel was carried by the apos- 
tles. There are no such records in the Indian country as you can find in 
Pompeii and Herculaneum. I found that everywhere, the moment they 
were impressed with the fact that your errand was one of mercy and 
love, they gave you their respect and reverence ; and they have always 
been true to their plighted faith. I say now, that as far as my own con- 
viction goes, there is not a Christian body in the United States which 
can show such fruits and rewards for Christian labor as can be shown 
in the Indian missions among the people of the United States. It is 
true of our own body, and I believe it is true of all others, and it has 
seemed to me, at times, as if God had so richly rewarded us, that we 
might have the courage and bravery to endeavor to make atonement for 
that awful record which we have paid for in such terrible histories of 
massacre and blood. 

There are two or three particular matters that I would like to bring 
before you. 

The first is, it seems to me, that the moment the Government 
comes in contact with the heathen people, our first efforts should 
be to give to this movement individuality. They are the mere vassals, 
the bondmen of wandering chiefs, and so long as the Government 
makes its distribution through them, the Indians must of neces- 
sity be in subserviency to those agents. You can have no true inde- 
pendence or freedom until you give that man his position as a person 
in the eye of the Government, until you give him an individuality. 

The second point is, we must have law. There is no use talking about 
that question. Our missions will be broken up, our efforts blasted, all 
our work destroyed, unless these people shall be recognized as the sub- 
jects of law, and law be given to them; I am not prepared to say in 
what form, but there are some very simple forms in which it might be 
done. The agent may be the stipendiary magistrate as in the Can a das. 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



21 



He may have the power to administer law. Remember this, reserva- 
tions are not subject to the law of State governments. It is United 
States property, and the Government holds it in trust for the Indians. 
Some officer must be there representing the United States Government. 
If the Government is not prepared to give us a United States judge, re- 
siding in the Indian country , it seems to me we may ask that the agent 
may be clothed with the functions of a stipendiary magistrate, and that 
either the chief or some worthy Indian men, shall be sworn in as 
constables, or be made deputy United States marshals. As I said be- 
fore, the absence of law in the Indian country demoralizes the Indians; 
and it gives to every white man contiguous to the reservation, the feel- 
ing that they are mere vermin, who can be exterminated at will; that 
the Government does not regard them as worthy of consideration. 

Another point with reference to the employes. The remark has been 
made by one or two gentlemen, that we are attempting to undo the 
wrongs of two hundred years. There is not a single body of Indians in 
this country, if their history was known, whom we have not wronged. If 
any one of you will go through the records and find out how often faith has 
been violated, you will be perfectly appalled, and you will wonder how 
people who believe in a God, have dared to breast His anger and indigna- 
tion as we have done. The attempt to atone this wrong is an expensive 
business ; there is no question about that. Those Indians to whom my 
friend Mr. Welch referred, those Cheyenne chiefs up at that agency, 
have had their relatives and kindred murdered in the Chevington mas- 
sacre, of which General Shermau, when he wrote the report, simply said 
it would have disgraced any savage tribe in the interior of Africa, 
and the testimony in regard to which was so vile, that Congress sup- 
pressed it. It is there in the records of the Department, and I venture 
to say that your cheek will grow pale, as it never grew before, if you will 
take the trouble to read it. 

To show you what kindness will do after long effort, I will relate a 
single instance. One of these very men who has maintained this posi- 
tion of hostility for months, was evidently watching the agent very 
closely to see whether he was a man who spoke the truth. At last 
the agent heard that that man's son was dying of pneumonia. He knew 
it was the custom of these Indians to give away everything they had 
whenever they lost a near friend; and this Indian gave away his blanket, 
gun, dogs, everything that he had, and scarified his body until he bled 
from every pore, and then sat down at the side of his dead sou. The 
agent sent him a coffin, a blanket, and a kind message, and said to the 
one who carried the message, " Give my message to him and tell him 
how sad I am for him, and that I have sent him this coffin that he might 
bury his son. His white brother pities him. If he can help him he will 
be glad to do so." The Indian sat silent for two hours, but at last arose 
and said "The white man has -made my heart like a woman's. I shall 
bury my dead son beside his door. I am going to live beside the agency; 
and I will be the white man's friend forever." It is a simple instance to 
illustrate what kindness will do. Now, as I said before, it is very expen- 
sive for us to attempt to atone for these wrongs ; and here we meet with 
a practical difficulty to this new policy. Some gentleman said, very 
truly, that the head of the Government and the head of the Indians 
were on the interpreter's shoulders, and I tell you, gentlemen, that* I 
have known many instances of transactions where both parties were 
in entire ignorance, and where the whole negotiations had been car- 
ried on in the interest of certain traders. Now the Government wishes 
us to pay at these agencies, $400 for an interpreter, and that is all. So 



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BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



a Christian blacksmith and a Christian carpenter can have four or five 
hundred dollars a year. What are we to do? I know the gentleman 
said, and I respect the words very much of my brother who made the 
remark, that an agent ought to go with a spirit of self-sacrifice. I only 
wish we could find the men. But I doubt whether you can find intelligent, 
clear-headed, business men ; men who are in the depths of their heart 
philanthropists; men fitted to guide a heathen people out of darkness 
into civilization, unless you can guarantee at least that these men shall 
have a support for themselves and their families. 

But I am not prepared to say that I think it is best for us to ask the 
Government to supplement these salaries and increase them. I believe 
there is to be a very fierce conflict. The Indian ring are not killed. 
The influences that have been heretofore dragging these men down to 
death are simply in abeyance. They are merely waiting for us to. lose 
heart, and you will find that the whole great Indian ring will at once re- 
assert its force. Now, as so much must be asked for, and we must de- 
mand money to give these men food and clothing, and seed and cattle, 
it seems to me — and I say it to our own religious bodies, for I have no 
right to say it to others — I believe, as Christian men, it is the duty of 
our church to say to any man that goes there, that we will take care of 
him. If the Government is willing to pay four hundred dollars for a 
Christian blacksmith, and it takes a thousand dollars, I do not know 
any reason why we, as Christian men, should not give the rest. My 
own mind is very clear on another matter. I believe that the spiritual 
side of the work for the Indians will be utterly destroyed with any re- 
ligious body which takes the funds for civilization and uses them in con- 
nection with this Christian work. They may use them for schools, or in 
any way that shall be for the benefit of the Indians ; but when you take 
this money and use it for the support of your ministry, I believe the In- 
dians will at once set these clergymen down in this category, and say : 
44 You come, as all other white men, to live upon our money. That is 
your only idea." I think, therefore, it is wise to keep these two lines of 
work entirely separate and distinct. Whatever money the Government 
gives for their civilization, give it to them, and see that it is expended, 
and expended faithfully; and if we haveother work, let us, as Christian 
men, give for it ourselves, because we are giving it for our love of Him 
who is the friend of the helpless. 

One word with reference to the titles. My friend Mr. King, of New 
York, said that these men were not citizens. I do not mean to lay any 
charges against the Government, but it does seem to me we have been 
playing <• hide and go-seek" here. When it is for our convenience to 
recognize these heathen men as an independent nation, when we desire 
to purchase their lands, we recognize them as such and make a bar- 
gain with them as an independent nation ; we pledge the faith of 
the Government to them as an independent people; and our Senate, 
as the treaty-making power, makes a treaty ; the President ratifies 
it ; and in that treaty we specify that every Indian shall receive a 
good and sufficient title to eighty acres of land when he has complied 
with certain conditions. And the Supreme Court of the United States 
has recognized that the Indian has a possessory right to the soil, and a 
possessory right that must be extinguished in some way. That has 
been decided several times. But right here comes the question when 
is the Government to carry out this policy. The Indian is given a cer- 
tain certificate. I believe it is done in good faith. But the Indians are 
advised, by those who are no friends to this policy, that that title is not 
a good title, and the Indians have no faith in Government papers. I 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



23 



have a body of Indians in Minnesota, friends of mine, who received the 
thanks of the Department because they came down in a body and of- 
fered their services to a fort, in the time of the massacre, and saved that 
northern border from desolation. The Secretary of the Interior took 
pains to pay a visit to them at that time, and returned his thanks to 
them. In three separate treaties there is a clause that, on account of 
their signal good behavior, they shall not be removed so long as they re- 
main the friends of the whites. For five years all the pressure that 
could be brought has been brought to compel these Indians to go; and 
the agent of the Indians will tell you that that is the case now — that 
they are mere tenants at will, and the Government says they must be 
removed. This is the feeling in the Indian country. 

I simply call attention to these three facts: In the first place, you 
must recognize individuality. A man never is a man until he has 
something he can call a home. You cannot make a Christian home out 
of an Indian tepe. Secondly, he must have law and protection; and, 
thirdly, we are bound to cany out what we promised to give him — a 
title to the soil. 

Mr. Kingl I agree with the bishop, and that is what I inquired 
about — how title was to be secured. 

Eev. S. B. Treat. Mr. Chairman,, we have but one agency under 
our care — the one referred to by Mr. Welch. I have endeavored to 
keep my eye upon it during the year, and, as far as I know, the duties 
of the agent have been w T ell performed. His influence there is good, 
and the condition of these Indians is exceedingly hopeful. We 
have, in connection with that reservation at Lake Traverse, and with 
our other stations, seven churches, five hundred and sixty communi- 
cants, six ordained Indians, four licensed preachers, and other helpers 
that I need not mention. Our plan is to work out from the stations, 
which we occupy, among other tribes not yet reached. We have visited 
the Santee agency during the year, as others have done, and I most 
fully confirm the statements which have been made in regard to it. 

One fact has not been brought out distinctly, or, at least, not very 
distinctly, and that is, that these Indians of the Santee agency were 
almost all of them, in 1862, absolute pagans. The 'head men were in- 
volved in that terrible massacre*, and yet, when I was there, 1 saw 
those connected with our mission, particularly the men, dressed as we 
are; the women dressed like white women, except that they did not 
seem to understand perfectly the fashions. They were intelligent, 
and I spoke to a large meeting of them. They were well fitted for 
work, and everything about them seemed to be exceedingly hopeful. 

are establishing an industrial school therefor girls and women, and 
we hope that much good may be accomplished by it. Industrial in- 
struction is given on the reservation. Last year, the chairman will re- 
member, I made a statement in regard to the Indians at Pawnee 
Grove. They went out as a colony from the Santee agency ; broke 
loose from their tribe, and gave up all their tribal advantages. They 
had not money enough, I suppose, to pay the office-fees for their titles. 
They were without implements of agriculture. They had almost nothing 
at all. They have received no aid from the United States Government, 
and no assistance, of course, from other tribes ; and yet I have this 
statement in my hand to show what they have been doing. There are 
among them seventy-seven men, one hundred and three women, seventy- 
six children, making in all two hundred and fifty-six. They have fifty- 
eight claims— the fees all paid for. They have built fifty-three log- 
houses themselves, and many stables ; and, during the past year, they 



24 



BOARD OF INDIAX COMMISSIONERS. 



have raised twenty-nine hundred bushels of corn, twenty-two hundred 
bushels of potatoes, and have cut two hundred and eighty tons of hay 
by themselves, without help from the United States Government, or 
from the people of their tribe. This, to me, is one of the most encour- 
aging facts which we have had in regard to the Indians, and I will say 
that I am a firm believer in their capacity for civilization. I have not 
the least doubt of it. I think, on the whole, as compared with other 
races, they may be expected to receive civilization as soon as others, on 
an average ; but then I do beg leave to say, after having been con- 
nected twenty-live years with this Indian work, that the strong lever and 
the Jong lever is the gospel of Christ. Schools are useful — they are indis- 
pensable; but first the gospel, and let the schools come to complete 
the work which the gospel undertakes. 

I have been troubledfor a great many years with this matter of lawless- 
ness. Before the day of Bishop Whipple among the Minnesota In- 
dians, I discussed the matter with our missionaries. It seemed to be 
then, as it has seemed since, one of the great obstacles — this perfect 
lawlessness of the Indians among themselves ; and our Government, re- 
garding them as wards — doing nothing at all to arrest these disturb- 
ances. 

Dr. Fereis. We have five agencies, all in Arizona. The first is that 
of the Pimos and Maricopas, which contains from four to six thousand 
Indians. These statistics as to population are estimated. There are no 
perfectly trustworthy returns as to the number of Indians upon these 
reservations. We have the Colorado River reservation, which has been 
estimated at from three to five thousand Indians. There are the Mo- 
have Apaches, and some two or three smaller bodies of men whose 
names I cannot give without having a report of the Indian commission. 
The Gamp Verde reservation has upon it somewhere from one to t wo 
thousand Apaches, and the Camp Grant reservation has about twelve 
hundred Apaches. Camp Apache has upon it at present about eighteen 
hundred Apaches. The Pimos and Maricopas have two schools. These 
schools have been organized since we were here a year ago. The at- 
tendance is now more regular than it was a year ago. I looked over 
the record of last year, and found that the attendance ran from noth- 
ing to eighty. There were some two or three or four days during the 
year of regular school-days when there were no children present, either 
boys or girls. Then again the attendance has been as high as eighty. The 
attendance during the latter part of the year has been very much more 
regular than it was at the beginning, and is becoming more and more 
steady. These Pimos and Maricopas have been an agricultural and 
manufacturing people ; that is, manufacturing some articles for their 
own use, for some time, and they have been a settled people, attached 
to the reservation, and attached to the lands they were cultivating. 
But they are becoming unsettled and are being driven into habits some- 
what nomadic, for this reason. They are on the Gila River, and the 
whites have settled upon the forks of the river above them, and almost 
entirely cut off their supply of water, so that they are compelled to go 
over to the Salt River country in order to raise their crops. When they 
got there, in the Salt River country, the people there thought, " O, we 
can steal the horses and cattle the Pimos may bring along with them ; 
they are outside of their reservation, and we can do just as we please;'' 
and they do steal them. Then the Pimos try to reclaim them or they 
try to steal somebody else's horses to make up for what they have lost ; 
and for the first time in the history of these Indians, there has been 
trouble between them and the whites. They have been friends with the 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



25 



whites, and have boasted that there has never been a conflict between 
them and the white man in their entire history. 

2s"ow, if these Indians were white men, if they were citizens as we 
are, there could be a suit brought in the proper court to compel the 
white men who have settled on the river above them, to repay to them 
whatever damage they have suffered from the diversion of the water, or 
to compel these white men to stop the wasting of the water ; for, as I un- 
derstand, they have dug an irrigating canal from the Gila Eiver, and 
run the water through their lands, and afterwards they do not care 
what becomes of it, or which way the water goes; the Indians get none 
of it. There is no one but the United States Government to protect 
these Indians. They have been placed on that reservation by our ac- 
tion, and we are bound to look after them. If the bread is taken out of 
their mouths, if the supply of water is cut away from them, then the 
Government of the United States ought to see that they are put 
somewhere else where they can cultivate the soil, and where there is a 
supply of water ; or else they ought to buy out these white settlers, or 
make them change their location, in order that these Indians may be 
able to cultivate their lands. The Pimos and Maricopas are running 
down now, day after day, under these influences. I suppose there was 
not a more promising field among the Indians in all the United States 
than in these two tribes, but it is becoming a very difficult one, simply 
from the action of the whites, who show not the slighest regard for the 
rights, or for the preservation of the rights, of these Indians. What- 
ever is necessary to be done to move the Pimos and Maricopas, either to 
some location in Arizona or to the Indian Territory, they are very will- 
ing should be done, and they are all ready to go to the Indian Territory, 
and would like to go. They wish to avoid a conflict if it is possible, 
and if they could be transferred to the Indian Territory it would please 
the chiefs of these tribes. 

On the Colorado Eiver agency one school has been begun recently, 
but there is as yet no report of any consequence from it. The Indians 
there were very indolent and very shiftless. They had been drawing 
their support almost entirely from the Government, and one of the first 
things to be done with them was to induce them to earn their own 
living. The}' were, I suppose, about as indolent a body of Indians as 
could be found in the country, perfectly peaceful, perfectly good-na- 
tured, and just as lazy and. indisposed to do anything for themselves as 
they were peaceful. But at last, we have the report from Dr. Tonner, 
the very excellent agent stationed there, that they are now at work. 
An irrigating canal has been dug that supplies them with water ; and 
he says that even the chiefs come to him and ask him to go off in this 
direction and in that, to Bee what they have been doing with their own 
hands. We are happy to report that the Indians of the Colorado Eiver 
agency are beginning to earn their own support. The Apaches upon 
Camp Verde have been chastised by the United States troops,! believe, 
because they Avere accused of having a part in the Weekenburg stage 
massacre. 

General Howard. That was at Date Creek. 

Dr. Ferris. They have got the two together, then. The Indians 
were driven from the reservation by this chastisement, but we have re- 
ceived letters now, within the last "two weeks, stating that they are re- 
turning. The agent wrote at one time that he was afraid they never 
would come back. I think it is a very doubtful thing, from what I have 
seen about it, whether they had any part whatsoever in that stage mas- 
sacre. I understood that the clothing of the woman in that stage was 



26 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



found in the possession of whites and Americans off in another direc- 
tion, and I think that was clear and distinct testimony at the time ; 
and why it happens tbat these persons are to be chastised for that stage 
massacre I cannot understand. There is no doubt, however, that they 
have been guilty of a great deal of villainy, and perhaps the punish- 
ment w r hich has been administered to them has been just, and may be 
salutary. They have, however, been off the reservation pretty much 
the whole year, and the agent has been waiting for them to return. 

In regard to the Camp Grant agency, we have to report that the 
agent whom we had sent out there has been removed. He was a gen- 
tleman very highly recommended to us, and as far as we know is an 
excellent man, and one who has maintained a consistent Christian char- 
acter in frontier life in Wyoming Territory, and who had experi- 
ence in dealing with Indians ; but, as far as we can judge, he was im- 
prudent. Either by his orders or by the orders of a squad of soldiers 
who were with him, a party of Indians were fired upon who had among 
them some Indians who ought to have been arrested. That party con- 
sisted, to a considerable extent, of captains of these Apaches. It de- 
stroyed the confidence of the Indians at Camp Grant in this agent. 
When their confidence was gone it was necessary for him to be re- 
moved. We have no question but that it was perfectly right to re- 
move Mr. Jacobs from Camp Grant, but whether he was -to blame for 
the loss of confidence or for what was done, or whether the officer in 
command of the squad of soldiers was to blame, we have no knowledge. 
We have just sent out a new man to Camp Grant who, we hope, will do 
well. He has this great advantage, that he is the friend of Lieutenant 
Whitman, whom the Apaches at Camp Grant have much confidence in, 
and he will take to them a letter from Lieutenant Whitman recom- 
mending him. This Camp Grant reservation is very unhealthy. The 
Indians are dying off, and it is a place where white men say they 
cannot remain unless they are soaked with whiskey to keep off fever 
and ague. I expect myself that a white man cannot remain for any 
length of time without using some antidote for the fever. These Apaches 
at Camp Grant, we think, ought to be removed. They can be removed 
to the White Mountain reservation, which is large enough to accom- 
modate all the Apaches in Arizona. The Camp Apache reservation 
has justreceived an agent. We have been trying to send out a proper man. 
It is a large reservation, and the intention of the Government is to gather 
all the Apaches in the Territory on that location in the course of time, 
so that we have been rather slow about selecting a man. We wished 
to get as good a man as we could, as he was likely to have a 
very large charge after a while, and I would say a little in regard to 
that directly. A good man has just reached that field, and our work 
there may be regarded as new, begun within the last month or two. 
There have been two occurrences in connection with our part of this 
work during the past year that it would be proper to notice. In the 
first place, a United States commissioner has been sent out to the Ter- 
ritory, General Howard, accompanied by some gentlemen, and we have 
to report that this commission has been attended with very happy re- 
sults. It has proved to be an excellent way of managing these diffi- 
culties that occur between the Indians and the whites. General How- 
ard's mission madp a fine impression upon the Apaches, as we know, 
and it has made a very considerable impression upon the whites of 
Arizona ; though, of course, there is a great deal of abuse heaped upon 
the General's head by the papers of Arizona, because he averted an In- 
dian war. It is proper, I suppose, to notice here that there was every 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



27 



prospect of a general Indian war in Arizona Territory. That has been 
prevented, and I suppose that there has been saved to the United States 
Government by this mission, and by the Christian agents on the ground, 
somewhere from five to ten millions of dollars this last year by 
averting an Indian war in Arizona. There has probably been almost 
enough of money saved in Arizona to meet all the Indian appropria- 
tions ; for war there would have been very expensive. The transpor- 
tation is exceedingly long, and I presume if General Howard had not 
gone there, and if there had not been agents of the character of the 
men who were on the spot, there would have been a fierce war in that 
Territory, which would have cost this Government, before it was set- 
tled, certainly somewhere near ten millions of dollars, and perhaps 
double that. And that is an item worth regarding here to-day, as there 
has been something said about expenses. I presume the money has all 
been saved, not by our denomination, but by this policy of the Gov- 
ernment this last year in Arizona. The chiefs of the Apaches and some 
other tribes were brought here to the East by General Howard, and that 
has proved a fine matter in every respect. It has had an excellent effect 
on the Indians. It has had an excellent effect upon gentlemen here in 
the East. These Indians met with our board, and with some prominent 
gentlemen of our church, such as we could get together at that time of the 
year, it being in the very hot weather of last July. It was the only time, 
however, that the Indians could be brought on, and they were perfectly free, 
evidently, to say just what they pleased and just what they wanted. 
With the exception of a representative of a single tribe, I think 
every one of them said most emphatically, "We desire schools, we 
wish to have our children taught, we wish to become such people as 
you are, and we wish to have peace." They were unanimous in that, 
that they had a great desire for peace, and had no more desire for con- 
flict and bloodshed. The effect upon gentlemen here was very excel- 
lent. We had these gentlemen come in our rooms in New York. Then 
we had a Sabbath evening meeting in the church on the corner of 
Twenty-first street and Fifth avenue which was just as full as it could 
hold ; people not only occupying all the seats but standing up. More, 
perhaps, might have stood in the aisles near the pulpit, but the aisles 
in the rear of the church were filled with people standing up, and every 
seat was occupied. A large number of gentlemen of character and in- 
fluence were present that night. The Indians spoke, and General How- 
ard made, of course, an admirable address. Now, I know that there 
were many persons there who, by their political affinities, were opposed 
to this policy — not exactly opposed to it, but who rather questioned it. 
I know there were gentlemen present in our rooms when we had a 
meeting with the Indians who were strong democrats, and who, while 
they would do nothing to oppose this policy, and nothing to hinder it, 
at the same time questioned very much as to whether it was the right 
thing to do; and the visit of the Indians to New York I know 
made a good many conversions. One or two of these gentlemen 
havesaid to me since, "We are ready to do now anything that may be 
necessary in order to carry out this policy of the Government," And 
they have said, too, that no party could maintain its position in this 
country if it discarded or broke up the present policy in regard to 
the Indians. I have had that from the mouths of gentlemen who are 
birthright democrats, and whom 1 suppose will remain democrats as long 
as the party continues, and some of them have been leading men in their 
localities in the party. The congregation in the church on Fifth avenue 
we kept until about 10 o'clock that hot night ; they remained after the 



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BOAEI) OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



speeches were made, and I suppose that more than one-half of those 
who were there present came up and shook hands with the Indians. It 
had an excellent effect. We have heard from it two or three times since 
they went home, they saying that these white men, whom they under- 
stood were people of the best class in ]Sew York, had taken the trouble 
to remain that hot night after the long exercises, and came up to the 
platform to shake hands with them. Its effect upon thelndians has not 
yet been forgotten. 

Dr. Lowrie has spoken about the pay of the agents. We have had no 
special difficulties, or no more difficulties than we have usually en- 
countered in conducting Christian work in such a world as this, and have 
no reason to regard this work as one of any special difficulty. But there 
have been two matters which have been somewhat troublesome to 
manage. In the first place, as to the pay of the agents. Living is very 
expensive in Arizona, transportation is very expensive, and our agents 
all tell us that they cannot live on their salary. We hope there will be 
something done, whatever may be necessary, so that the agents may 
he able to draw certain stores from the United States Army stores, 
at the same rate that Army officers draw them, and then there will be 
no further difficulty. That, 1 think, will obviate the trouble altogether. 
If the agents can draw certain specified stores from the Army depots 
free of transportation, then I think the salary will be enough. It is 
right also to say that Ave have had some trouble from the fact that the 
superintendent, from the entire want of training in what we may call 
Christian benevolent work, has had no sympathy with our agents. He 
is an honest man as far as we know. He has bought for these agencies 
all supplies that were authorized, and he has bought them with the 
money that he was authorized to spend for them, and his administration 
as far as we know has been perfectly honest ; but he utterly fails to co- 
operate with our agents in regard to education, or in regard to Christian 
work ; and it was to be expected that he would fail. Well, one does not 
like to complain of the President of the United States, but we asked 
the President a year ago, and told him just how this thing was — we 
asked him to make a change, and he has not done so. If we could have 
such a superintendent as the brother who is here, he would be worth 
his weight in gold in Arizona, and he could do an amount of good that 
is almost incalculable. 

ISow, gentlemen, in regard to this camp Apache, I said that we had 
been slow in placing an agent there. We had a capital man ; a man 
whose family has grown up so that they no longer need his care ; a 
gentleman who, if he went out there, expected to expend more than he 
received ; an excellent business man ; a man who some years ago spent 
two years in Arizona, who knows something about the Territory, and 
has had a great deal to do with the Indians there. When the matter 
came before him and he understood who the superintendent was, 
he said, 44 1 won't go ; I know that I will get no prompt co-opera- 
tion from him." We held on to him for some time. I urged him to go 
and try it, and not to make this objection until he had actually become 
involved in difficulties— until there had been a lack of co-operation. 
Said he, "If you will make that agency independent— take it out 
of the superintendency — I will go, but I 'will not go and put myself 
under him. This gentleman has had absolutely no education in 
regard to the benevolent work that we conduct. He knows nothing 
about it. An application for a teacher will lie in his desk from three to 
six months before he will send it forward. He does not feel the importance 
or the necessity of this work, and of prompt and earnest action, and yet in. 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



2!:) 



all other respects he is a perfectly honest and trustworthy man, and we 
have not a word to say against him. 

I am happy to say that the German Reformed Church at its last synod 
resolved to co-operate with us in this work, which will very muck 
strengthen us, and the agent whom we have sent to Camp Apache is a 
member of that branch of the Reformed Church. I would like to say 
that this is the first agent that we have nominated from the Reformed 
Church. We have taken every agent nominated so tar from other 
denominations, because they seemed to us to be better men, and because 
the men recommended to us had experience on the frontier and ex- 
perience with the Indians, and had maintained consistent characters 
on the frontier. 

The Arizona whites are very bitter, the most of them, against the 
Indians. But there is a good deal to be said in extenuation of their feel- 
ing. Our Roman Catholic friends have a few churches in Arizona, but 
beside those there are nonw There are no Protestant churches in the 
entire Territory, as I understand, and except what is clone by the Roman 
Catholics there is no preaching — I mean except that which is done by 
the Episcopal chapels at Prescott. 

General Howard. The Methodists have a preacher at Phoenix, in the 
valley. 

A member. There is another. Mr. Wheeler has just gone there. We 
had letters from him about a week ago announcing his arrival. 

Mr. Ferris, (resuming.) Yes;^that may be so, but the state of society 
is just what you may expect under these circumstances. With churches 
and schools in Arizona, no doubt there will be a body of men created 
who will favor this policy very decidedly, and who will bring men of 
intelligence and men of character together. 

I hope General Howard will be heard by this commission. As he 
has been somewhat abused, it is proper to say that we regard his 
course as that of a wise man ; and we consider his services during 
the last summer as of the highest importance, and I wish I was 
able to write the thing up. 1 would like to write about that splen- 
did act of Christian heroism that was performed by General How- 
ard in going unattended and putting himself right into the hands 
of Cochise and his band. It was perfectly astonishing to the people 
of Arizona. They did not dream there was a man on earth who 
would do such a thing. At one time, I believe, while going among 
these people, General Howard started off, with nobody but one Indian 
boy, among men regarded as the most fierce, hostile, and implacable 
of the Indians of this Territory. 

General Howard. Yes ; and I never met from them a discourtesy. 

Dr. Backus. Mr. President, I will be very brief in my statement, 
and some points that I regard as important I may be able to intro- 
duce this evening if you have a conference. 

We have four agencies, two in the Indian Territory, and two in Ne- 
vada. The agent of the Cherokees, representing eighteen thousand, 
is J. B. Jones, a son of the Rev. A. Jones, a missionary, who has 
grown up with them and is recognized as one of their citizens. He 
is also a graduate from a northern college. The agent for the Creeks 
is Professor Lyon, an educated man, of experience as a teacher and pro- 
fessor in a university or college; and, whatever may be said against 
these men, they are noble men and true, and we know it. They are 
true to the Indians and true to their interests in every way. We have 
not established denominational or mission schools either with the Cher- 
okees or Creeks, but we have missionaries who favor these schools and 



30 



BOAED OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



sympathize with these agencies. I think the Cherokees have not less 
than sixty schools, which average as well as the schools through the 
country forty-five years ago did. Some of the teachers are more com- 
petent than some teachers were through the State of Xew York at 
that time. The Delawares, who are now adopted citizens, and 
others occupying the Verdigris and Xeosho Valleys, are establishing 
schools and building churches. We have appointed a superintendent 
and missionary there within the last few weeks, changing him from an- 
other place because of his experience. His duty is to encourage educa- 
tion, not denominational, but in these district schools, and also to preach 
the Gospel. So also the Creeks have perhaps a corresponding number 
of schools. They have some twelve or thirteen thousand people, and 
the Cherokees some eighteen thousand. They have also ministry la- 
bors; and the ministry are, perhaps, more in sympathy with our 
southern churches. In Nevada, we have the Walker River agency, 
representing six thousand Indians. Mr. O. A. Bateman is their agent. 
I have known him from childhood, and I have known his parents. I 
do not know as to his wisdom or practical ability to conduct such a 
mission of roving people ; but, as far as I know, the Secretary of the In- 
terior and all are well pleased with his work, and we liave had no cause 
of complaint. Mr. J. W. In galls, who I am happy to say is present, I 
ask may be heard, either now or in the evening, and that he give us a 
few words for the Pi-Utes and their agency, representing perhaps about 
three thousand : they being in the eastern, and the Walker River the 
western part of Nevada. Mr. In galls has a hopeful future. He antici- 
pates such change and such concentrating on reservations as shall secure 
cultivation of the soil, and such industry, education, and religious inter- 
ests in the Indians, as will greatly improve them. I think he can speak 
for himself, and I think he has the sympathy of the Secretary of the 
Interior in his plans and purposes. 

I will add that I have by correspondence, and in various ways, sought to 
secure such missionaries for the Territory as might give their protection 
and sympathy to teachers, whether in their own families or their friends. 
It is difficult to find teachers to go, and it is more difficult where the 
Indians roam around as they do in Nevada. We have not yet suc- 
ceeded in doing anything more than to try to do for these Indians there. 
I would simply say that I sympathize very much with the remarks on 
the point of salaries. I think the gentlemen have spoken directly on 
that point, and I would say amen to what has been said. 

We do not find the expenses of agencies the same, and have had the 
matter before us of adding to the salary and letting the agent do mission- 
ary service : but fearing it might complicate the thing, we have avoided 
it. We wish to have the agents sent out as employed by the Govern- 
ment, and therefore we have not done anything of that kind. But in 
Nevada the expense of living is much greater than even in the Indian 
Territory, and our agents must leave there unless we can help them. 
Mr. Jones occupies the house that our board erected for the missionary- 
house. He never has moved out since. We are told that we shall be 
paid rent, but we have heard nothing of it. He has occupied the house 
in his agency for the Government. We do not complain of that, but it 
is not providing a house for the agent. Other agents complain that 
provisions are not made for them. Mr. Jones says as far as we are con- 
cerned he is provided for. I wish to add further, that as far as I know 
not only every man in our board, but our friends through the society, 
and churches, and ministry, sympathize with this mission and its work. 

Mr. Irs galls. Mr. Chairman, my connection wit h the service began 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



31 



in August. I went to my field in Nevada, entirely a stranger in that sec- 
tion of the country. The headquarters are at Pioehe, southeast of Salt 
Lake City some three hundred miles. It is a mining settlement, and 
there are but few Indians close to the headquarters. I immediately 
made preparations to visit the entire agency, that I might know the 
wants of the agency in making recommendations to the Department. I 
found, as Dr. Backus said, that nothing had been done for these Indians 
for the last three years in the way of education or civilization, save the 
distribution of a few supplies. Those properly attached to the agency 
number a little over three thousand. There are some eight hundred to 
a thousand lying over across the Colorado, which it is the purpose of 
the Government to attach to the agency, which will make it in the 
neighborhood of four thousand. Some estimate as high as six thousand, 
but I think the estimates of previous agents have been largely drawn ou 
their imagination. I did not discover as many Indians as I expected to 
when I got there. I held two councils with the Indians — one at Saint 
George and the other at Saint Thomas. Saint George is a Mormon town 
of fifteen hundred inhabitants, aud I found the Indians lying northeast 
and south of that settlement. There seemed to be a very bitter feeling 
existing between them and the Mormons from the fact that a portion of 
them were engaged in the massacre of Mountain Meadows. My agency 
comprises the three southern counties of Utah, the two southeastern 
counties of Nevada, and one northwestern county of Arizona, lying 
north of the Colorado Eiver, covering a very large tract of country, 
taking about twelve hundred miles to reach the different bands. At 
the council held at Saint George I was very ably assisted by Major 
Powell, the explorer, who, I understand, is a friend of General How- 
ard. He acted as my interpreter, as I did not feel safe in employing 
any white man around there. I had not confidence in the maimer 
of the Mormons' interpretation, and being an utter stranger there, 
I wanted a man I could have confidence in. I therefore telegraphed 
to Major Powell, and he rode night and day for two nights and one day 
in order to meet me at the council. He delivered a very brief address 
to the Indians, fully indorsing my recommendations to them, and very 
largely assisted me while there. I held another council at Saint Thomas, 
in Southeast Nevada, and at both, I will just state, the expressions made 
by the Indians were to fully accede to the request of the Government as 
to education and civilization, and to abandon all their former habits of 
life. In fact, when I touched the matter of education and instruction in 
the mechanical arts and agriculture, there seemed to be a feeling almost 
of enthusiasm, and a desire to immediately have the work begun there. 
But there is no reservation, and it did not seem practicable to me to in- 
augurate any system. In fact there could not be any systematic labor 
without a reservation, and on account of the limited salary I had been 
compelled to leave my family in Illinois, my home, and support my- 
self on what the Government allowed me there. I have presented my 
report to the Department, and since I have left there General Crook, of 
Arizona, has written to my deputy, urging the immediate removal of 
nearly a thousand of the Indians lying over in Arizona, who are Pi-Utes, 
to be attached to the agency, as it would shorten the war several months 
if done. All of my Indians I found extremely degraded and destitute, 
although willing to work if they could have proper incentives j but I 
found that the best lands were seized by the Mormons and the white 
settlers, and they were being crowded back into the mountains. The 
country is not too good or fertile in any event, the best of it, and the 
system of irrigation is limited. I therefore urged the immediate setting 



32 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



apart of a tract of land in Southeast Nevada, or one in Southern Utah, 
the Nevada tract to be immediately provided for by an appropriation ; 
and this met with the fullest indorsement of the Secretary of the Interior 
and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. I am now, at the request of 
the Department, waiting here to assist the committee in maturing a bill ; 
and I can say this, that I have received courtesy and whole support 
from the Government in my labor thus far. While in this city I have 
conferred with General Eaton and Dr. Gregory, of Illinois, now here, 
to aid me in the selection of the right men as associates there in the 
management of the industrial school for these Indians. Major Powell, 
who has been among the Pi-Utes of Nevada and Arizona for the last 
two or three years, is preparing a grammar of their language, which will 
be -of very great service to me in my work, and he most fully indorses 
the scheme presented to the Department. I can say that I enter 
upon the work with hope, and yet with fear, from the fact that I find 
opposition on the part of the white settlers there, and the lack of suppor t 
on the part of the representatives of the Government. Some mem- 
bers of Congress, in referring to me personally after having met me, 
think perhaps I am an enthusiast in my work. I can only say that had 
they witnessed what I have of degradation and of destitution among 
these Indians, if they had the hearts that should be possessed by men, 
they would not be less earnest in presenting the needs of these people 
than I am. And yet when I meet some of them, Senators or Represent- 
atives, in seeking to remove their opposition to any additional reserva- 
tion, 1 am called, perhaps, an honorable man, a worthy man, but then 
they think I am an enthusiast in the work. 
General Howard. That is a very good name. 

Mr. Ingalls. But I do desire to do something more, as I remarked to 
Commissioner Walker, than simply to distribute a few blankets and sup- 
plies, and to draw my salary from the Government. I left a very profitable 
business in Illinois to enter upon this work. I was educated in Massa- 
chusetts to go into the ministry. I was diverted from that into mer- 
cantile life. But to recover my health, and that I may do what is in 
the line of life-work to me, when this was presented to me I gave it an 
immediate and full consideration, have entered it, and I do hope, if God 
saves my life, that a year from to-day I will have specimens of the pro- 
ducts of the Indians in the shape of cotton to show to you. There is a 
very rich salt mine in my agency that I have seized, and I hope there 
will be something more than a written report to be made to you as to 
the distribution of supplies and the drawing of my salary. 

Mr. Hayden, of Philadelphia, (representing the Christian mission- 
ary convention.) I notice in the report that there are two agencies 
spoken of. What I have to say only has reference to one, which is 
^hat of Neah. E. M. Gibson is the Indian agent at that point. My 
last information from him is his third quarterly report, in which he 
states that he has a school under his charge. At that time there were 
some twenty pupils in regular attendance, and some others transiently 
attending. He reported that he was engaged in teaching the ordinary 
branches of reading, writing, and mathematics, and giving a great deal 
of attention to agriculture. Last spring he had in contemplation the 
planting of about thirty-five acres of potatoes and other vegetables, to 
educate the Indians and to familiarize them in the arts of civilization. 
He expresses the greatest confidence in the work of evangelizing the 
Indians ; but, as a means of doing so, he thinks they should be first 
brought under the general principles of morality, and hence there are 
as yet no religious meetings held among them, attention being mainly 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



33 



directed to instructing them in the common principles of morality. He 
has also sought to give greater sanctity to the marriage contract, and, 
as the result of his efforts, has recently received applications from three 
Indians for the solemnization of their marriage, as among the white peo- 
ple. He reports that his best friends and neighbors are among the In- 
dians ; that they indicate their entire confidence in him, and hence be- 
lieves in the feasibility of this method of operating among them, and 
thus gaining an influence over them which will result in their Christian- 
ization and civilization. 
Adjourned to 7.30 p. m. 

January 15, 1872 — 7.30 p. m. 

The meeting met pursuant to adjournment, and, upon motion of Mr. 
Welch, the Rev. George Whipple was appointed chairman and Mr. 
Cree secretary. After which prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Backus. 

The Chairman. If I understand the reason for a different organi- 
zation of the meeting this evening from the morning meeting, it is that 
the Board of Commissioners may be relieved from the responsibility of 
the more general suggestions that may come before the meeting than 
the Board itself can properly be called upon to consider. We are, then, 
organized this evening simply as an association of the friends of the In- 
dian, representing the various Christian organizations with which we 
are connected, and with which the Government is co operating in this 
work of the salvation of the Indians. While, then, we keep the general 
objects before us, we shall be more at liberty to make individual sug- 
gestions that shall come as representations from the various religious 
organizations of things that need to be remedied; all plans of operation 
in which the commissioners may be able to render the societies more 
effective co-operation ; things which we may properly ask of the Govern- 
ment; things which we may properly ask of the people at large. In 
short, the whole subject is before us. Looking only to God for his guid- 
ance, we have a right this evening to consider anything that comprises 
the welfare of these our wards as well as the wards of the nation. I had 
designed, at an early stage of the meeting, or almost immediately, to 
call upon General Howard; but as he has just arrived, it maybe proper 
to give him a breathing-spell before he is called to speak ; and, if the 
meeting will permit me, I will say that Bishop Whipple expects to leave 
us in a few moments, and if he has a word for us, we would like to 
hear it. 

Bishop Whipple. Mr. Chairman, I certainly did not expect to say 
anything to-night ; but there are two or three thoughts which I can 
throw out for the encouragement of those who are working for the help- 
less ; and the first is this^ There is not to be found on the face of the 
earth a heathen people who offer so great an encouragement to the 
work of Christian civilization. The North American Indian is the only 
heathen on the face of the earth who is not an idolater; who recognizes 
at once the fact that there is a Great Spirit ; who believes in an unseen 
spirit-world, and who has an abiding faith in spirit influence. He also 
feels most keenly that he belongs to a common race. Very much of the 
hostility of the Indians of to-day is the hostility of despair. It is the 
terrible blow that a man who has nothing to hope for strikes toward 
his enemies, conscious of past wrongs. If I had the time to-night, I 
would like to tell you some of these histories. Perhaps a little incident 
that happened to mvself will explain. I brought a body of chiefs to 
Philadelphia, some few vears ago. My friend, Mr. Welch, took these 
Indians to visit the statue of William Penn. He told the Indians the 
3 I o 



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BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



simple story of Penn's fidelity and love, and the Indians listened 
with upturned faces, as though it was a new revelation of the character 
of the white man. When Mr. Welch had finished, one of the chiefs 
asked, "Where are these Indians P That told the whole story. I 
might explain it by saying that these Indians were our friends during 
the revolutionary war, and so faithful were they that Congress thanked 
them for their fidelity, and promised them that they never should be re- 
moved. But they were removed from Ohio ; yet still, true to their plighted 
faith, they fought again for us under General Harrison, and again re- 
ceived a pledge that they never should be removed. They were removed 
again, and during our recent civil war the Government asked them to 
act as scouts, and their homes were destroyed in their absence, and 
very recently, under this Christian policy, they are receiving homes at 
the hands of the Government. It is the history of nearly all Indian 
tribes. The difficulties connected with this work I alluded to in the 
remarks I made to-day. I will mention one incident brought out by the 
agent of the Chippewas. He told you that two Indians were hung, 
under the suspicion of having murdered an Indian woman. Some wild 
Indians came to me last fall, quite a distance, to ask me some very un- 
pleasant questions. They said very near the place where these Indians 
were supposed to have murdered a white woman — one of our own wo- 
men, a very respectable woman, against whom no one could say a 
word, who had come down to this trading-post, and was outraged by 
brutal white men, and died under their hands. They complained to 
their agent, but he said it was none of his business. All the white 
men on the border and the Indians knew she had been murdered by 
the white men. Nothing was done, said the Indians. Now, this wo- 
man is missing ; no one has seen her. The bones which were supposed 
to be hers were examined by a physician, after the Indians were hung, 
and were pronounced to be deer's bones. Now, said the Indians, why 
is this % How is it ? You hang the Indians under suspicion of commit- 
ting a crime, and allow your white people to go clear when they have 
committed a crime, 

Now, I have no heart to speak of Indian wrongs. I will only say 
that there is a bright side to the picture; there is a silver lining 
to this cloud. The work we are conducting to-day is work for the 
Lord Jesus Christ. It is work for our Heavenly Father to help 
this poor, wretqhed race out of their darkness to the light of Chris- 
tian civilization. And, as I said before, I do not believe that any 
Christian body has ever engaged in any work that has brought such 
blessed fruits as the work connected with the Indian missions. It may 
be said that these are heathen men, and very wretched men, but that is 
the mission of the gospel of Christ. There is another side to the ques- 
tion as well. I can understand how a man could believe that this world 
was governed by chance, and that might makes right, and that the 
weak must always give place to the strong, and should turn his back 
upon the helpless Indian ; but I cannot understand how that could be 
done by any man who believes in a God, and who believes in the truth of 
God's law, " that whatsoever a mansoweth, that shall he reap," and that 
when a Christian people sow robbery, they reap robbery, and when they 
sow murder, they reap murder. 

In our own experience we have found out that it was far better for 
us to do this Christian work than to leave these poor people unpro- 
tected, for I believe that our own Sioux massacre in Minnesota was 
brought about by shameless robbery, that is to say, the Indians sold 
eight hundred thousand acres of their reservation, for which they never 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



35 



received one solitary cent. It was absorbed in claims. They waited 
two months for annuities. Mad, exasperated, and angry, tbey said their 
children, some of them, would starve to death. A good part of these 
annuity moneys had been taken Jbere at Washington, and used for 
schemes, and I believe that since that massacre this Government has 
expended more money in the Indian wars that grew out of that piece 
of robbery than all the moneys that all the Christian bodies in Amer- 

^ ica have expended for missions since this continent was discovered. I 
have not a question about it. And I believe that this reward that has 
come to every Christian body which has attempted, in the spirit of 
Christ, to carry the gospel to these poor people, is a token of the love 
of our Father. And if we only have the faith to do the work, leaving 
the harvest to God, we shall see this wretched people, and see those 
that are now wandering in their darkness, sitting at the feet of the 
Savior, " clothed, and in their right mind." 

General Howard. Gentlemen, I have listened to-day to the reports 
from the different societies with much interest, and many a time I have 
thought I would give a great deal if I could express the feelings of my 
heart as well as they have done. When Bishop Whipple was giv- 
ing us those interesting incidents, I thought how similar (though he is 
in the far Northwest) are all his observations and experiences to those 
of the visitors to the extreme Southwest. The character of the Indians 
seems to be about tfre same ; their habits the same ; the treatment that 
they have received in the Southwest even worse. My first connection 
with the Indians in any way was in 1856 and 1857, when sent to Florida. 
I there became somewhat acquainted with the dealings of our people 
with them. The cry would come from Florida, " An Indian war ! v when 
there were precious few of the Seminoles there and but very little indi- 
cation of war. But the cry carried money, carried troops, carried sup- 
plies, into a comparatively desolate region. A great many volunteers 
were raised when I was in Florida. I was attached to the Ordnance De- 
partment, issued arms and ammunition, and so became personally ac- 
quainted with nearly all the volunteer officers, and with their methods 
of dealing; there was nothing which struck me, then, with more horror 
than the pursuit of the women and children as a part of the operations 
of that war. The idea prevails to-day in a large portion of our country 
that to carry on war with any success whatever against Indian tribes 

' it is necessary to come upon them by surprise and to fire directly into 
camps containing women and children as well as men. That massacre 
of Camp Grant — that horrible massacre which created a shudder, not 
only throughout our country, but throughout the world, where so large 
a number of women and children were slain and so many children were 
carried away captives and sold into slavery, a large number of them 
still being in Mexico, and unrecovered by our Government — was only an 
instance that was told. Nearly every massacre had been of a similar 
character. It is the way that our people have dealt with the Indians. 

Now, with reference to our Army, I would like to say a word or two. 
In Florida, I found the Army officers, as a general rule, friends of the 
Indians. The regular officers of the Army at large were comparatively 
friendly with them. I went down there without much feeling in the In- 
dian's favor. But afterward I became deeply interested in making 
peace with them, and went out to do so. I know a great many other 

j officers who felt in the same way, that it was a most hopeless service, 
the most thankless service they could render, to fight Indians. 
Many an Army officer on the frontier who is sent to do this work is un- 
der orders to do it, and he has a very difficult task indeed — an exceed- 



36 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS 



ingly difficult and trying one. But what I refer to respecting the 
method of massacring the Indians is this: Where exasperated whites 
form volunteer forces, or where they spur on the soldiers to do the 
work for them, excesses always follow. This was very much the case 
with Arizona. It was reported that there was danger of a general 
war ; and an appeal of horror came from there as though the people 
would all be murdered by the Apaches. Well, war did. exist; the 
President was in great distress about it ; the Secretary of the In- 
terior particularly so ; and it was difficult to tell whom to select to 
send out. My Bureau was then about being closed, and Mr. Delano 
sent for me. I had a long conversation with him, and he besought 
me to go to this country. I went out there for the purpose of mak- 
ing peace, if possible, or, at any rate,, to look into the condition of 
affairs and make a report ; to " make one more effort for peace," as 
the President wrote to General Schofield. I went to the commander of 
the military division, and then to the commander of the department, 
before doing anything special. 1 was also directed to go to the white 
inhabitants, Americans and Mexicans, and did so. I proceeded from 
village to village. Wherever I could collect them together I informed 
them concerning what the President desired. JSTow, in regard to the 
term "Apaches," I notice that the entire press is at fault, a wrong im- 
pression is existing. There are those who are called "Apaches" on the 
border of Texas. There are those who are called Apaches in the north- 
eastern corner of Arizona. Now, how is it that these are all "Apaches" 
and yet do not speak the same language, and have no relationship the 
one with the other? Often it is said that General Crook is pursuing the 
"Apaches." How does that happen when you have made peace with 
them % I wish to explain what is meant by "Apaches." The answer is 
that the wild Mohaves, the Tontos, the Arrivipais, the Finals, the Sierra 
Blancas, the Mimbres, the Chiricahuas, though spread over a vast sec- 
tion of country, have a similarity of language, and probably have at 
some time been united, but the bands now are isolated by hundreds 
of miles. I noticed in Dr. Ferris's report to-day that he spoke of the 
Mohave Apaches, and the Mohave Reservation on the Colorado Fiver, 
between Arizona and California. Those are " Mohaves," and not real 
Mohave Apaches. The Indians who have escaped from these tribes, 
and have intermarried with the wild Apaches, are called Mohave Apaches, 
and any wild Mohave who has abandoned his tribe and gone off, is an 
Apache. So that all through the northern section the wild Indians of 
the reservation, many of them committing depredations, are called 
Apaches or Mohave Apaches. Coming down a little farther south, 
seventy or eighty miles, there is a section of country called the Tonto 
Basin. It is large, surrounded by mountains. In this Tonto Basin there 
is a tribe of Indians named Apaches, or "Tonto Apaches." They are 
sometimes called " Tontos." The word tonto means " fool." 

The first Indians I tried to communicate with were these, and I wish 
to tell you an incident that occurred. Some years ago a physician in 
our service, not a Regular Army physician, but a contract one, was 
stationed at Fort Reno, in the Tonto Basin. It was a fort then occu- 
pied. The chief and his people came into the fort. A kind of peace 
was made with them. When there, this physician undertook to poison 
the chief, but did not succeed. His name was Del-She or Chel-She. He 
gave him a dose of arsenic — an overdose. The physician was exceed- 
ingly anxious to have it take effect ; but he threw it up. He said, when 
he approached him the next day, "Amigo," and as he drew near he shot 
him through the body. This even did not kill him. The Indians think 



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37 



he bears a charmed life, saying " a ballet went through him and did 
not kill him." This man has, of course, been full of treachery. He will 
bring in his people and pretend to do right, and the first that is known 
he is doing some mischief. I do not think we can expect much of him. 
I have given you a literal case. Since then he has been habitually 
treacherous ; but there is something to be said about that on his side : 
These Indians, with himself, were brought into Fort McDowell. I visited 
Fort McDowell soon after they left. An order was issued by the depart- 
ment commander in consonance with the order from the military division 
and from Army headquarters, fixing the period beyond which Indians were 
to be treated as incorrigible, provided they were not on the reservation. 
As soon as that order was issued, almost immediately before the day 
arrived on which it was to be put in execution, every one of these In- 
dians was gone from Fort McDowell. I found out how to account for it. 
It was simply this : When I first went to the Territory, a man was 
recommended to me as the best interpreter I could possibly have. I sent 
this interpreter out, and had with him one of the finest young officers 
we had in Arizona, with a body of soldiers, to try to communicate with 
this tribe. I tried myself in other ways, by smokes and signs, and did 
not succeed. It was not until long after that that I discovered the 
reason of failure. It was, simply, that this interpreter himself had 
killed many Apaches; that they hated him, and that they would give 
no sort of sign of their presence upon his approach. One of their chiefs 
told me afterward that he was a liar. When we made a peace at Camp 
Grant, he said to me, " What will this man do ; how will he be able to 
get a living"? His occupation is gone as soon as peace is made." That 
is the case with many interpreters. Go through that country and you 
will find plenty of self constituted interpreters who do the same thing. 
What I mean is, that these interpreters deceive the Indians. This man 
whom I first spoke of must have done so, because it was for the Indians' 
interest to remain there. They were to be fed, and treated kindly, but 
they disappeared immediately upon this order being given. They went 
outside to take the condition of those who were to be slain rather than 
to remain in and receive the benefits of the Government. 

Another case of false interpretation occurred at Camp Verdi, It was 
told me again and again by witnesses whom I deem perfectly reliable, 
by officers of the Army and by citizens, that the interpreters actually 
told those Indians that war was to be made upon them that day, and 
every one of them fled. Again, there was another order issued to take 
them prisoners of war when they came in. This order was interpreted 
kindly ; simply to feed them and take care of them as prisoners of war, 
with a view of restraining their liberty until peace was made with, other 
tribes. It was not properly understood, and when executed away from 
the commanding general or the Indian agent, it was often cruelly exe- 
cuted, as at Camp Verdi, where the Indians were placed in irons. Put 
two or three Indians in irons, and no more will come in. 

Instances of bad faith.— There are several instances in this Territory 
which show how little we keep faith. After visiting Fort McDowell, I 
went to Camp Grant, and succeeded, finally, after a long trial, in mak- 
ing a peace between thePapagos, Pi-Utes, Mexicans and others, and the 
Apaches at that post, and in that vicinity. We had a grand council at 
Camp Grant. It was one of the most trying times I ever had in my life. 
The Mexicans and Americans brought up some children that had been 
taken at the massacre. They brought them up very readily. I was sur- 
prised at it ; but I found that they had been deceived ; that they thought I 
really would be able to persuade the Indians to allow them to retain the 



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children. They wanted to bring them and have the arrangement made. I 
was entirely unable to make any such arrangement, and was obliged to 
retain them ; and when I pronounced the decision to return them to the 
Indians, there was great anger evinced by the Mexicans and Americans, 
and it was thought that I was treacherous in the thing. After praying 
and thinking over the subject next day, I decided on taking an appeal 
from the district attorney, who took grounds against the children's 
return to the Indians, to the President of the United States. Entertain- 
ing that appeal, I decided that these children should be placed in the 
hands of the agent, and be retained at the agency-building until the 
President should decide. The President did decide that they should 
be returned to their tribe. It w r as an instance of justice which pene- 
trated all the Indian reservations of that region for hundreds of miles 
around. Wherever I went, and wherever it was told that I actually 
took those who had been captured by the whites and returned them to 
the Indians, the faith and the heart of the Indians were with me. The 
Mojave Apaches are those at Camp Verdi. They are quite a homo- 
geneous people, and can understand the Tontos. We succeeded iu get- 
ting two hundred of the latter to come in. While at Camp Grant, one 
man came in who was represented to be a bad Indian. There are bad 
Indians among these people, but they are not all bad. There are really 
comparatively few who are incorrigible, or those who mean to do wrong; 
but there are, of course, bad Indians. Well, one of these really bad Indians, 
who had always been an enemy of the whites, came in to the reservation. 
The agent wished to arrest him, and asked the commander of the post to do 
so. The commander of the post sent an officer to make the arrest. The 
officer accordingly took a detachment and went out for that purpose, 
but did not succeed. He w r as in the sutler's store, and seeing the soldiers 
coming, he rushed out and went among the Tonto Apache Indians. 
The soldiers immediately levelled their pieces and fired into the crowd. 
The agent having asked for this, and the whole tribe knowing it, lost 
confidence in him on that account, and ever after he had to have a 
guard with him. He had no wrong intention in asking this assistance 
at all, although I think myself that it was exceedingly injudicious, but 
he never could recover the confidence of the Indians nor his former 
feeling of safety among them. 

Breaking the peace. — The Mexicans and Americans made peace w T ith 
the Apaches, at Camp Grant, and entered into solemn relations of peace. 
Who broke it first"? Because a bad Indian came on the reservation it 
was no excuse for us to level our muskets into a group of innocent 
people. A great many things have occurred at that Camp Grant. I 
do not wonder that the Lord has cursed the place so that nobody can 
live there without fever. Five Indians were brought in at one time by 
a flag of truce, and when they were running across the parade-ground 
they were fired on and shot. Within a mile of that post a terrible 
massacre occurred. Coming in in the morning at daylight they slew 
women and children, yet not a particle of resistance was made. They 
were murdered in cold blood. "And you speak of these things as if 
there were no excuse"? 7 ' There are plenty of excuses. We have heard 
of excuses for such things, and will hear them always. You say we do 
not speak of the horrors on the other side. We are all acquainted with 
the horrors on the other side ; perfectly well acquainted with them. 
But go to the Indians in the right spirit ; go to them in the way in 
which you are going to them now, and it will sooner or later stop these 
horrid massacres. It is strange that we cannot see it ! For nearly 
twelve years in Arizona we have been at war. We have spent millions 



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39 



and millions of money to destroy that portion of the Apaches south of 
the country I have been speaking of— the Rio-Bonito, the Mimbres, 
the Chiricahuas not on reservations, and all that long line of tribes of 
Apaches that run down into Mexico. These are different from the 
others I have been describing to you. They are really a better class of 
people in many respects. I noticed in the tribes that I visited, absolutely 
no evidences of unchastity ; they were quick and active ; they looked 
better and brighter than any of the Indians who had been around the 
military posts. We have been nearly twelve years spending money to 
suppress them, and yet it could not be done. I tried every means rather 
than go myself into their fastnesses. I found there was no other way, 
and that I must go without escort and without soldiers, if I would com- 
municate with them. The Indians advised me, when I had only six 
white men in my party and two Indians, when we came within a hun- 
dred miles of the camp of Cochise, to diminish my party still further. 
I diminished it to two besides myself. My party consisted of Captain 
Jefferds, Captain Sladen, and myself. Captain Jefferds was a citizen 
of the country in whom the Indians had confidence, and Captain Sladen 
was my aid. We went more than a hundred miles with this small 
party before we reached the camp of Cochise, and by great care, by 
showing signs with smokes, indicating our number, and going entirely 
around his camp before we entered, we made our way in through a nar- 
row pass, through a deep canon ; a place where, if troops had under- 
taken to enter, every one of them could have been slain. In these 
mountains at that point a hundred men could hold at bay ten thousand. 
We came into one of the finest natural fortifications I ever saw in my 
life. While there communicating with Cochise under that oak tree, 
after talking with him a few minutes, he told me a history, and it is 
very much the same that the governor of Arizona has put forth to the 
country in print. It was a history of the wrongs of the Apaches. He 
says, " We treated the white man well; we had no trouble with him at 
all; we had no war until the Bascom massacre came." This young offi- 
cer, Bascom, understood that Cochise's band had taken some children. 
He demanded these children. Cochise said they were not in his baud. 
The officer disputed him and said that they were. He then took Co- 
chise and three other Indians prisoners. Cochise made his way out 
and the others were left. Cochise went out, captured the neighboring 
station-man, a white man who had been his friend, put a rope around 
his neck, and in plain sight and hearing of Bascom told him that 
this man would be hung unless he surrendered his friends. Bascom 
hung his friends, and their bodies remained there for years. While out 
in that country, a man told me he had slept under the skeletons as the 
safest spot, because the Apaches would not go near that point. Co- 
chise had the rope around this man's neck, attached it to the pommel of 
his saddle and choked the man to death. That was the beginning of 
the war. From that time on these Apaches have been murdering the 
people all the time, and we have been fighting them, and the people 
have told me again and again that the average was about ten to one ; 
that the I ndians had killed ten white men where we had succeeded in killing 
one Indian. I noticed in one of the papers of Arizona that it thanked 
God that so many more Indians were killed ; but, notwithstanding the 
counting up, the number of white men, women, and children vastly ex- 
ceeded them, and that is the sort of warfare that some men seem to like. 
Now, sometimes there is a little mistake about this. There are some 
men (and let me speak plainly) who love to make money out of anything — 
human life, human blood, human morals, or, from demoralization. Up 



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BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS, 



along the coast, they control quite a large trade. The more soldiers 
that go down below, the more trade they will have; and then, without 
any knowledge whatever, they will send telegrams from the coast above 
all over the land with reference to what is being done, and whatsis 
wanted down below. Now, when you go into that territory, there are 
a few men who want war, who can make money out of it. They have 
prospects of contracts, and their interests lie in that direction. But the 
vast majority of the people really are not in favor of war, but have a 
theory in their minds that by war they can conquer a peace, and that 
eventually they will have peace. They are in a sort of fever all the 
time ; they fear the Indians will come in and massacre them ; and then 
almost every family has had somebody killed from it. Those of us who 
do not live in such a place must remember this : that if we were there 
and under these influences we would feel and speak very much as they 
do. I think we ought to remember that to form a proper judgment 
with regard to these people. I do not say it is altogether right, but 
that is the feeling through the community with regard to it. They say, 
" First conquer the Indians and bring them into subjection ; whip them, 
and then you can make men out of them." Now, a little observation of 
course will show that that is not so. Go to any tribe really whipped 
and you will find that tribe degraded ; the women degraded by the 
white men ; drunkenness and debauchery, laziness and worthlessness 
prevailing. I could name tribe after tribe of that kind, and in propor- 
tion as they have been in contact with a horrible class of white men 
in that proportion are they degraded and demoralized. But as you go 
further from it you find less of that sort of demoralization. These peo- 
ple say u why do you wish to bring the white man in contact with us.' 7 
For mercy's sake let us bring some degree of Christian or chaste hu- 
manity into contact with them. But is not the case hopeless % How 
can they trust you after such conduct as this toward them % That 
incident of Bishop Whipple, related to-day, touched me very deeply. 
I could name to you very many such instances. It seems so easy to 
touch the heart of one of these men. Now, when I started from Wash- 
ington I believed these Apaches to be the lowest of human beings. 
W T hen I arrived at Camp Grant I found the boys quick to learn; they 
gathered around me instantly. I would undertake to teach them Eng- 
lish, and they to teach me Apache. I had a little book, writing down 
their words. They were kind, showed no hostility, were glad to welcome 
me. I went among them in this spirit, wearing a pleasant face, with- 
out a pistol or any weapon but a jack-knife, and I found no difficulty. 
One night, in company with some gentlemen, we went out unarmed 
seven or eight miles, and sat with the chief, who regarded. our visit as 
a special mark of favor. Another time I met an old man, and said to 
him, u You have a Father above ; I have the same Father; therefore, 
we are brothers." He sat and looked into my face a moment, got up 
and walked across the room and gave me his hand. He was my strongest 
friend afterward. He is to-day working for peace. He came to Wash- 
ington with me, and helped to bring others who were reluctant in the 
beginning. And this is the simple truth. I saw a man who came into 
Camp Grant, who was full of hatred, who was opposed to the policy of 
the President of the United States, who was opposed to anything that 
was respectable in the Christian faith, who was opposed to the Indians 
per se. I saw him there. I noticed the distrust of his countenance. I 
noticed the way in which he treated the interpreter. I noticed his 
whole bearing ; and I also noticed the reciprocity of hate from these 
people. They have not learned to bless their enemies, and bless those 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



41 



who curse them and despitefully use them and maltreat them. That 
must come in a different way. I do not say that I might not have been 
killed. I would not have blamed them particularly if they had killed 
me. But what was the truth ? I staid eleven days in the camp of the 
wildest Indians in Arizona, and while I was there I sent out to the 
neighboring posts not to attack any parties unless they were commit- 
ting depredations. I was instantly published as having reversed the 
order of the President of the United States, and as protecting these 
criminals through the country ; but if they had assaulted one of these 
parties coming in, of course we would have been taken out and hung. 
We knew that. Now, all the time we were there Cochise himself was 
in a fever of anxiety on that subject, and kept speaking to us again and 
again about it. He said to me, "What will be done to the Indians 
coining mV J It was on that account that he was anxious. lie became 
more and more attached to us, and he did not mean that anything be- 
longing to. us should be touched or that our lives should be put in jeop- 
ardy. Now, a good deal has been said about citizenship. 

The Papagos near Tucson. — The Papagos in the vicinity of Tucson 
will be aided best by citizenship. They have not education. I was very 
much in favor of education preceding citizenship for the colored people 
in the beginning, but I found out afterward that citizenship is the 
lead-horse. It is absolutely necessary. Just as long as it was possible 
to prevent the freedmeu from voting by burning down their school- 
houses that work was done. Even in the civilized State of Maryland 
twelve school-houses were burned to prevent them from learning ; but 
the instant they attained citizenship that work ceased altogether. 
Now, give to these Papagos in the vicinity of Tucson 'citizenship, 
and you will be perfectly astonished to see what fine people they 
will become. They can have no rights now 3 they have none. TUey 
keep crowding them in all the time. Some of them tell me, with a 
great deal of feeling, that they are gradually loosing their lands. They 
ask: " Cannot something be done!" The agent asks for a reservation 
in the vicinity of Tucson. But citizenship is better than a reservation. 
If we give them citizenship it will no longer be Papago, Papago, but it 
will be William Jones, John Brown, and so on, with all the rights of in- 
dividual men. 

With reference to the Pimas on the Gila, about everything was said 
by Dr. Ferris that was necessary. They have expressed a wish to go to 
the Indian country. But if they remain in Arizona, give them citizen- 
ship also. The people love citizens in Arizona, and like to have their 
votes. They get all the citizens they can. They count up nearly ten 
thousand within the limits of the Territory, I believe. But they will 
have more when they have these, and then, instead of being Pimas, as 
I said, they will be individual men and have individual rights. A great 
many will say they are not prepared for citizenship. They are prepared 
for the rights and responsibilities of citizens. If you give suffrage to 
them, they will be able to protect their own property, and they can be 
punished for their crimes. Citizens came in a body to us as we passed 
through Arizona on our way home. The Eepresentative from Arizona 
was present, the superintendent of Indian affairs, the agent, and others, 
and these citizens begged and plead for troops to be brought to keep 
peace between the Pimas and the whites. It shows us that the feeling 
of hostility does not exist toward the "Apaches" alone, and this in- 
stance was sufficient to show it, and we did recommend earnestly to 
General Crook to send down a company to be in that immediate vicinity 
to keep the peace. But if our Government will give them the rights of 



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BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



citizenship, I think the whole difficulty will be settled, because they will 
have the right to move from the Gila Eiver, where their territory is 
cramped, and can go to Salt, the Colorado, or to any other river of the 
Territory, and do as other citizens do — take up land where there is 
land fit for cultivation. 

I recommended in Arizona a diminution of that department. Now a 
great many people wonder I have sustained General Crook so often, and 
have spoken to me about it. General Crook is an excellent officer. He 
is a very quiet and retiring man, and I believe only seeks to do his duty 
as he is instructed, and he does it conscientiously. That is my opinion 
after long association with him. And yet a great mauy subordinate offi- 
cers exceed their instructions, and are guilty of cruelties. But the trou- 
ble is not with General Crook. It is with the endeavor to keep peace 
with the Indians, and make war upon them at the same time. It is the 
want of a clear and distinct understanding of the way to deal with this 
whole question. Now the agents are very few in number, and they are 
hundreds of miles apart. Here is Dr. Tonner, one of the agents on the 
Colorado Eiver. Several hundred miles from him is another agent, at 
Camp Verde. Several hundred miles is another, at Camp Grant. A 
hundred and twenty miles is another, up at Camp Apache. Now what 
is there behind these agents ? They have a few employes, and these 
employes, as a general thing, must be taken from the country ; for you 
cannot get men to go from the east, and therefore you get those very 
often who have been for a long time drunkards, sometimes licentious, 
and guilty of other immoralities. At one station in New Mexico, a Na- 
vajo station, I found that nearly every subordinate was guilty of some 
of these vices, and a man who was recommended for a sub-agent was 
not yet married to the mother of his children. Now what is the remedy ? 
It is not sufficient to send an agent to one of these frontier posts or sta- 
tions, but you must send a good Christian blacksmith, a good man for 
teamster, a good man for butcher, and they must be amply efficient in 
their trades, as well as good men. It may be necessary to pav more 
than the Government pays in order to get a Christian blacksmith, but 
the societies had better give the whole price than to have one who is 
guilty of nothing but gross profanity, or some other crime. Profanity 
prevails in that country, and I hardly ever found an employe at stations 
or on stage-routes who was not full of it, who was not always insulting 
the Almighty. Certainly, with such instrumentalities, you cannot civilize 
anybody. Therefore you must plow deeper than your agents. Agents 
have a hard, very hard time. In Arizona one of the agents told me, and I 
believe him, that it took every cent of his pay to procure just his food. 
Now what inducement is there for him to stay, but the love of his fellow- 
man and the love of his Maker ? An agent all alone, with nothing to back 
him, stands in very poor circumstances to do much good. Then, again, 
as to the teachers. I was glad to hear some one speak of teachers who 
are willing to go along with these nomadic tribes. They are continually 
changing their camps and localities, and for some time you must let them 
do it. Those in New Mexico will not remain stationary. If two or three 
die in a camp, they will never stay there. When they remove, the 
teacher must go with them. Now, if he obtains their confidence, he can 
go with them, and they will treat him with the utmost hospitality and 
kindness; but if he has a nice house and they have none, there is a little 
envy and talk, and it is a difficult thing to answer; but if he will go 
among them, he can do a great deal in teaching under the trees through- 
out their wanderings. The boys and girls will gather around him 
and drink in his instructions daily. We must go on for awhileiu that way. 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



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Of course it will be well to change this order of things, but can it 
be done? Now, in order to demonstrate clearly that it can be done, all 
that is needed is to pass from one reservation to another. You take the 
Camp Grant reservation, which is a recent one, and nothing of the 
kind is yet undertaken. Go to Camp Apache, a little longer in opera- 
tion, although under an incomplete and poor system in its work; yet 
up there there are ten tribes and the most of them are planting. I 
visited one of the planting-grounds off ten miles with one of the Indians 
who came on here. His name is Pedro. He was cultivating plenty of 
as good corn as I have ever seen, and some vegetables were being raised. 
He took a great interest in this, and has now procured some cattle, 
a present that was made him through the Secretary of the Inte- 
rior. He is preserving them and they are increasing. He was very 
much delighted with everything he saw in the East, and he writes me, or 
dictates a letter, showing how he proposes to educate his children, and 
how he is working hard to carry out our instructions ; and he has asked 
a little house to be built him, worth, perhaps, a hundred dollars. As 
soon as he gets a house some of the other people will want one, and 
little by little they will gather in the vicinity of these corn-fields, and 
they will have habitations. Forty miles on I went to Miguel's planting- 
grounds and there found very good crops of corn. Eighteen miles far- 
ther another, and there found better crops than the last place. These 
chiefs, now, would be very glad indeed to have a house. They have 
each asked for one, and if they once succeed and obtain one that they 
like, they will remain there and the people will group about them, and, 
little by little, will make their homes. There is plenty of timber in that 
country i It was the knowledge that these men gained when they came 
East which has helped them. Now, you may say, u they did not really 
become Christians, did they P There does not seem to be anything stand- 
ing in the way of their becoming Christians. There seemed to be no idol- 
atry. You present the simple Father to them and they love Him. Do 
you say at once that they were rid of all their bad habits % Of course 
not. Miguel said to me, when he was reflecting on his journey East, 
" There are two ways ; one is a good way, and the other is a bad way. 
I want to keep on the good way, until I get to God." And I do think, 
after a careful eight months' inspection of these people, and after hav- 
ing lived with them, that they are as capable of culture as any other 
people on the face of the 'globe. They are supposed to be the lowest 
and the vilest. If they are the lowest and the vilest, we have reason to 
thank God, because they are accessible, because they are docile, because 
they are easily won by kindness and the spirit of love, and it is thoroughly 
possible to get along with them. A great many people differ, and you will 
hear speeches if you will go into that section of the country full of fire and 
hate and enumerating all the wrongs and crimes that these Apaches 
have committed, and saying that you must deal with them with the 
bayonet, and that only; that you must kill them or bring thein into sub- 
jection by fire, and a great many people all over the East are convinced 
that that is the case. One of our prominent scientific men, a Christian 
gentleman, told me that it was the will of the Almighty that these In- 
dians should be wiped from the face of the earth; and many people 
whom I meet with daily in Christian circles intimate the same thing. 
But it is not true. If any man could so fix it upon my mind as to make 
me believe it, my faith in God would be shaken. They are children of 
a common Father, they are reached by the same methods by which men 
are reached here, and if you once, and only once, can get their hearts 
filled with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are safe, and if you go 



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BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



among thein in His name, without fear and without hate, you will sel- 
dom meet with even a discourtesy. 

Mr. Welch. Mr. Chairman, before we proceed to the discussion of the 
four or five points which will be taken up directly, I think it is exceed- 
ingly important that we should hear from another stand-point. I see 
General Hazen is present. He has much information, and, for one, 
I should be very glad to hear from him. I think it is important 
that those doing work from the church stand-point should have an op- 
portunity of being brought face to face with the officers of the Army, 
who are supposed to be Indian exterminators. 

At the request of the Chair, General Hazen spoke as follows : 
General Hazen. Mr. Chairman, it will be very little I have to say, 
but I wish to corroborate very many things that General Howard has 
said, not that it needs it, but that his experience has been in many cases 
my own. I have been glad to hear from his own mouth the very in- 
teresting account of his mission, and I know it will do a great deal of 
good. And, as Mr. Welch has remarked, I wish to say one thing 
with regard to the Army which I represent, being, perhaps, the 
only representative besides General Howard here. I think there has 
been some little misunderstanding as to the feeling of the Army toward 
the Indians. There have been a great many blunders, and there has 
been a sort of double management in Indian matters, which, as in 
all other matters, must create confusion and do harm. But as an in- 
stance, coming under my immediate observation, as to the feelings of 
the troops, I will say that in 1855, when I graduated at the Military 
Academy, I was sent to Oregon to join the Fourth Infantry. I joined the 
post at Fort Lane, in South Oregon. It was commanded by Captain A. 
J. Smith. A few days before my arrival there had been a controversy 
between a white man and an Indian about a pony. It increased into a 
quarrel, whereupon the white man pulled out his pistol and shot the 
Indian. His people very soon afterward shot some white men. We 
had gathered in the vicinity of Fort Lane, the post to which I reported, 
a large number of the Indians known as Eogue Eiver Indians, in that 
country. We were awakened one morning at the post by the continued 
noise of musketry in the direction of one of these camps, known as Old 
John's. We immediately hastened over there, and found the people of 
Jacksonville had formed a company of men, under one Major Lupton, 
and about the break of day they had attacked this camp and murdered 
indiscriminately a number of Indians. The Indians not killed, the men 
particularly, gathered their horses, and commenced a general massacre 
of the citizens, men, women, and children, on the upper portion of 
Rogue Eiver, killing and burning everything that remained there, and 
then went over toward the mouth of the river, and the war of Oregon of 
1855 and 1856 commenced. We gathered up all the Indians who re- 
mained near the post, and who had not received word in time to join this 
party which had become hostile and had committed these murders. We 
obtained from off the country the servants, for then there were a great 
many of the servants who were Indians, and gathered them in, knowiug 
that the hostility was so great they would otherwise be murdered in 
cold blood. We had probably a hundred half-civilized Indians that 
we brought in for that purpose, and we had four or five hundred Indians 
under a chief known as " Old Sam." We had no sooner got these In- 
dians together about the post, than this same company sent in a mes- 
sage to Captain Smith that he must surrender them, or upon a certain 
occasion they would attack their camp. There was considerable feeling 
throughout the country. Captain Smith sent back the message that if they 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



45 



attacked these Indians, they would first have to attack and kill all the 
United States troops stationed at that post. His firmness in this matter 
prevented any attack. He protected these Indians while they were in 
great fright, for they were continually receiving information that they 
would be attacked and killed. As soon as this excitement had fairly 
subsided Captain Smith was sent, with all the troops and a large num- 
ber of volunteers, down to the mouth of the Rogue River, to make war 
on this first party which had been attacked. The war continued for six 
or eight months, costing the Government many millions of dollars, ap- 
propriated since by Congress. I was sent, with the peaceful portion of 
these Indians, up to a new reservation in Oregon. I located them there, 
set them at work there, and I remained with them nearly a year. I 
knew nothing of their progress until last season when I saw, through 
the report of Mr. Brunot, they were still on that reservation and had 
made much progress. I merely speak of this to show you that the of- 
ficers of the Army are not all hostile ; neither do I believe there are 
many but who would be glad to carry out a peaceful policy toward the 
Indians if there could be some sort of close relationship and co-opera- 
tion between yourselves and the Army in order to prevent massacres 
and to prevent a conflict of authority and of orders. After the war I 
found myself, in 1868, in charge of the Southern Indians — the wild In- 
dians. I was sent on this duty under the auspices of the Indian peace 
commission. The New York mission that preceded this present organ- 
ization was composed of members of Congress and others. I was told 
to go to Fort Cobb and gather in all the Indians who wished to keep 
out of hostility. I went there, assisted by Captain Alvord. We told 
all of the Indians who wished to keep out of the war, then pending, to 
come there, and that they should be protected, and there should be no 
military operations against them. I was told by the highest authority 
to tell them this, and also that I would stay with them, and would take 
care of them, and would teach them various things, as I was instructed 
to do. They told me, in a laughing way : " Why, this has been told us 
a half-dozen times before, and three times we have been put in a very 
fair way of improving; aud your Great Father has taken away his 
chief, and has ceased to do the things he said he would do." Sure 
enough, in about four weeks a large military command came, under mil- 
itary auspices, and settled itself in my camp, frightening a great num- 
ber of these people away. They did not return there until the military 
expedition left that country, toward spring, and I do not think they 
have all returned yet ; at least, not to my knowledge, w 7 hilel was there. 
So the Indians were right and I was wrong. We did not do toward 
them as we said we would do. And in a great many ways, under my 
own observation, other promises, made in good faith to them by those 
sent among them, were not sustained. And, in that relation, I must say 
it is exceedingly important that this commission should continue its 
work. The great trouble has been, ever since my knowledge of Indian 
matters commenced, that a set of agents to these Indians will be sent 
among these people, making the promises they were told to make 
by the highest authority of the land ; they would commence carry- 
ing out this policy ; they would do what they could ; when, in the 
natural course of events' in our country, a new administration would 
take control of things, and that new administration would not recog- 
nize the promises and the policy which had been advanced before. I 
see through this commission, since its organization, such improvement as I 
have never before seen in my life. In fact, I have never until now seen 
any progress in Indian matters. It passed along from year to year, and 



46 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



was without improvement or opportunity for improvement. But I have 
seen, with my own eyes and understanding, the beginning of a regular 
organization and a regular plan and an actual improvement among the 
Indians themselves; and I am perfectly confident, from my own ob- 
servation, that if this commission can be continued and can do its duty 
as it has been doing it, for the next four or five years, that we may safely 
believe the Indian troubles will be nearly at an end. I will only refer 
to the fact that I was so impressed with the importance of enlisting the 
sympathies of the good citizens of the country that, before this com- 
mission was organized in January, 1868, I wrote to Peter Cooper, then 
the president of what was known as the Indian peace commission, to 
please send some gentleman of their own society to live with me that 
winter and to learn what could be learned by personal observation. 
The response was quickly made, and Mr. Colyer came. The amount of 
good he did I do not know. I think it was considerable. Very soon 
after that time this present body was appointed, and I must say it is 
doing its work well, and will certainly succeed if it only perseveres in 
keeping up its own life and organization. 

I, however, now come to one thing, and the only thing I came here 
really to say. I found on the Washita River a most peaceable and 
deserving band of Indians. Soon after going to Fort Cobb they came 
and wished to talk with me. Their story, which I knew to be true, 
was that they had always lived upon that river. The mountains 
and the river had their own name. In 1858 the Caddoes and some 
other bands were sent up from Texas by the Government with the 
promise that they should have a home there. They are now known as 
the Wichitas. They have never been given any land at all, and live 
there at present by sufferance. While the Indians who have fought us : 
who have given us a great deal of trouble, and on whom is annually ex- 
pended large sums of money, the Cheyenues and Apaches, and many 
others, all have land. These people say " this country of ours is given 
away to these people who have fought you, and we, Avho have raised 
corn, who make our own houses, who did not trouble you, who did not 
go away, who, during your great war, removed to Kansas to keep out 
of the way, were left on our own grounds without any reservation or 
home, not knowing but what, at any time, it will be given away as you 
have given away a large portion of it already." They said to me if you 
can do anything for us please to do so ; and I came here to-night, as it 
has been the first time I have had an opportunity to speak about it, to 
attempt to fulfill that promise. I hope that if this society can influence 
the assignment of a home to these people, which they may kuow is their 
own, that they will do so. 

Mr. Welch. I would like to say a word in regard to this. . There is 
a railroad now just completed, passing within a very few miles of these 
very Indians, and I speak with great earnestness when I say that I 
hope the Christian people of the country will look after that particular 
tribe of Indians. I know them to be deserving. I know that they feel 
they have been greatly neglected. They can be reached with very 
great ease, the railroad being built almost to their very doors. 

Mr. Brunot. Mr. Chairman, I would like to say a word or two in 
reference to the Wichitas who have been spoken of. The first annual 
report of the Board of Commissioners entered at large into a statement 
very much such as General Hazen has just given us. Knowing the facts 
in the case, we endeavored to induce the Government to set apart a 
reservation specially for these Indians. 

I wish to say, in reference to a remark made by my friend Mr. AVelch, 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. • 47 

in relation to officers of the Army, (although I know it was merely a 
jocose remark,) lest it might, by any possibility, be misunderstood, that 
I have seen these officers in all parts of the country during the last four 
years, have met with them at many posts, and I never yet have found 
an officer of rank and experience in the Army who did not express him- 
self in sympathy with the present policy of the President toward the • 
Indians. I have received from them always courtesy and co-operation. 
There may be such men, but I say that among those I have met there 
has not been one who has not expressed himself in sympathy with this 
policy of the President, which looks to the civilization of the Indian 
race, and I know not one of them who does not believe that the Indians 
are capable of becoming civilized ; that they have in them the same 
ability to reach civilization in due time, under proper care, as exists in 
the white race. I have said this lest there might be any misunder- 
standing in regard to the opinions which our board have of the Army, 
and in view of the efforts of interested parties — opponents of the 
Christian policy of the President — to disturb the friendly relations which 
exist. 

General Howard. Mr. President, I wish to call the attention of the 
Board of Commissioner to this point ; to ask them to do what they can 
in the way of suggestion or recommendation to prevent what one officer 
styled in a letter to m'e as "the double-headed policy." There is no 
double-headed policy in the President's mind, but I can give you one 
instance which will indicate the thing clearly. Last summer the 
Apache chiefs were here. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs promised 
them, the Secretary of the Interior promised them, the President of the 
United States promised them, and I promised them, the same thing. It 
was this : That if they would remain on their reservation and behave 
themselves, they should have the privilege of planting, the privilege of 
the freedom of the reservation, aud should be unmolested. These 
Indians went right back, and I had hardly reached home before I 
received piteous letters through the agents stating that a captain some- 
body had arrived on that post, not coming from this direction, but from 
the other way and that he had ordered every one of them — men, women, 
and children — into the post, and ordered that not one of them should 
go a mile beyond the post, under penalty of death. They begged that 
they might be relieved from that order, wanting to know how it was 
that, after we made these promises, immediately they should be violated. 
Now, you may ask how that was possible, or consistent with orders. 
The department commander was carrying on war against what are 
called the incorrigible Indians, and he wanted these people to come 
into the post and to remain there close to it so that he would be sure 
that none of them would afford assistance to the others, and also that 
he would be able to protect them. These were doubtless his reasons, 
and he was operating under indirect orders from the War Department. 
You will thus notice how the one case comes in conflict with the other. 
But if we take a little pains there ma3^ be one single policy as indicated 
and desired by our good friend, General Hazen. 

Mr. Welch. Mr. Chairman, a single word. I only desire to say that 
the Army officers with whom I have been brought in contact have been 
m good Indian friends as I have ever seen. I have conferred with 
General Sherman for the last few years, and have been most cordially 
supported by him. I can say the same of the department commanders 
of the Missouri and Nebraska. They have supported me most cordially, 
aud those under them have put themselves out of the way to do so, and 
have really, I think, felt a great deal more interest in the working of 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



the Indian commission than has the Christian church. And it is 
very encouraging to know that we are working in perfect harmony, 
while there seems to be a set of thieves and plunderers who are trying 
to hiss us down at all times for the purpose of gain by the introduction 
of their own policy. It is they who are trying to sap the foundation of 
the work we are doing, and who start these stories of a difference be- 
tween the two branches. 

The Chairman. The evening is passing somewhat, and there were 
a number of topics suggested at different times during the day which it 
was thought would require thorough discussion. I will mention some 
of them, and perhaps during the rest of the evening we can confine our- 
selves mostly to the consideration of one or the other of them, inasmuch 
as they have a perfectly practical bearing. We have been hearing a 
great deal of the evils with which we have to contend. Our object now 
is to find out how best we can meet and overcome these evils. First, 
then, u How to secure proper employes.' 7 Second, " How to secure 
missionary work at every agency." Third, u The true doctrine and 
the true methods to secure legislation in relation to titles to land in 
severalty to the Indians. 7 ' ''Complaints against agents when believed 
to be unjust. What shall we do with regard to them f 1 

Dr. Lowrie. Mr. Chairman, I would like to suggest a topic, and that 
is, whether it would be practicable for us in this country to take a leaf 
out of the hand-book of the British in India. They govern India mainly 
by native soldiers, commanded by British officers of high order of 
character, and distinguished men. The rank and file are native Hin- 
doos. I have been for months and months revolving these matters :n 
my own mind, with a growing conviction that a great advantage would 
be gained by dispensing with the common soldiers, necessarily retain- 
ing, and wishing to retain, the officers on whom we must rely, and sub- 
stituting Indian soldiers for the rank and file. I can see certain dif- 
ficulties, but I think I see great benefit, and I would like very much if 
that was put down as a topic if it is thought worth while. I think it 
would save the Government a great expense and the Indian women a 
great degree of demoralization. I think it would save many causes of 
outbreak that now occur, especially on the part of intoxicated white 
men as soldiers. There are certain other reasons, but I wish to indicate 
a general subject. 

Mr. Welch. Mr. Chairman, I question very much if that topic should 
be discussed. We had better have that which all can agree upon, and 
I move that we proceed to consider the matter of lands. That is one of 
the fundamental principles, and one which will bring up the question of 
citizenship and all. 

The Chair 3i an. I remember there was one other topic that was dis- 
cussed some time during the day, and it was thought advisable to refer 
to it again; that is, the administration of law among the Indians. It 
seems to me a very important one. 

Mr. Welch. I move that we proceed to consider that subject. 

Dr. Treat. Mr. Chairman, I do not wish that Dr. Lowrie's point 
should be disposed of so easily. I think there is a possibility of the 
consummation of an arrangement to be beneficial in all ways. It is in 
proof that a number of Dakota Indians were used as scouts, and very 
successfully nsed, very economically and very efficiently. That is, the 
purposes for which they were used were accomplished in a very proper 
and economical manner. And I have doubts whether our friends 
would not he perfectly satisfied with some arrangement that could be 
made. I am not sure just what the arrangement should be, but it 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



49 



seems to me, and has seemed to me for some time, that the Indians 
might very successfully be used as a police. 
Mr. Welch. They are so used. 

Dr. Treat. And much more extensively than they now are. They 
might be used as scouts or as among the Ohoctaws. But in some way 
it seems to me that topic merits our consideration. 

The Chairman. If there is no other topic presented, perhaps we may 
as well come to the consideration of the topic which Mr. Welch sug- 
gested ; namely, the title to be secured to the Indians to their lands in 
severalty. 

Mr. Welch. Then I will open the discussion by saying it is the 
question of the present day. When we first commenced this work those 
who are making their gains out of the spoils of the weaker had pretty 
much the whole Indian work in their possession. We have driven them 
from point to point. At that time all the purchases were made under 
their direct supervision ; so that in some cases we found that not over 
one-tenth of the appropriations made by Government have reached the 
Indians. The Indian commission commenced with the dry-goods first. 
As soon as they secured an honest administration in that branch, im- 
mediately the same men went to the groceries and freight. One 
item of freight was charged at $170,000 in one year, and the next year 
the same men carried it for $30,000. Then they were driven to one 
other matter, which was, applying to Congress for appropriations 
to the Indians, and they would take from 50, 60, 70, to 80, and 90 per 
cent, of that. That has been stopped by legislation. Now they seem 
by one consent to have settled down upon the land question, and there 
are powerful organizations here and in other parts of the country, that 
mean to deprive the Indians of every acre of their land, claiming that 
they have no more right to it than a wolf or a bear. About giving the 
Indians land in severalty, there are difficulties. When I was last in 
Washington, after returning from a visit to the Indians, I found them 
exceedingly anxious on that subject. I examined the question of their 
titles, and saw that they were worth nothing at all. I went to the In- 
terior Department and asked some questions. They directed me to the 
law-officer, the Assistant Attorney-General, who has charge of that de- 
partment, to examine the laws, and see whether there was any existing 
law that would enable the President of the United States or any other 
authority to give a title to the lands that the Indians held in severalty ; 
whether the Government of the United States could give a title to the In- 
dian, that he or his family should remain in possession without the 
power of alienation. That law-officer examined, and said it would re- 
quire legislation. There is now a disposition on the part of nearly all 
that are interested in what is sometimes called land-grabbing, to show 
that the Indian has nothing more than a possessory title, even to the 
reservation, so that some legislation will be necessary. I do not know 
of any persons who would think of it more carefully or prepare for it 
with greater propriety than the Board of Indian Commissioners. I have 
been assured that the President of the United States could not give this 
title that we want. It has become very clear, I think, to all minds, and 
to those who have visited the Indian reservations, especially, that they 
cannot long retain their large tracts of land ; that civilization is press- 
ing, and this possessory title is not the kind that would enable them 
to retain permanently more than they could well cultivate. When the 
Indians have asked, time and again, in council, what 1 thought on that 
subject, I simply said, "If this territory is yours now, that is, if the 
United States has given it to you, as a reservation, I believe, after di- 
4 I C 



50 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



viding to you in severalty in this form, if y ou choose to make improve- 
ments on them, no power on earth can dispossess you." And I believe 
that to-day. I believe that the Christian bodies represented here can 
have power enough to give the Indians perfect titles to farms. Beyond 
that I do not think we have power to go. We are always anxious to 
have this subject considered by the Christian people of this land, and 
the Indians be made to realize it as soon as they can. Hunting is be- 
coming an uncertain means of subsistence, and we have found that a 
number of wild men have been driven in for food during the last winter 
and the winter before, showing that they cannot live much longer by 
hunting and fishing and so on. This subject, therefore, becomes one of 
the deepest interest, and I hope gentlemen who have had experience in 
it will give it consideration. If we can only agree upon some basis and 
are willing to band together, I have no doubt just such legislation can 
be had for it, touching farms of respectable size, as we desire ; but that 
some legislation is necessary, I was assured by the law-officer of the In- 
terior Department, who said that the President could not give a title 
to it. 

About citizenship there is no question. It is admitted everywhere 
that an Indian in this country has a perfect right to leave his tribe, to 
surrender his title to anything that the tribe may get, and take up a 
tract of land as freely as any white man does. Dr. Treat referred to it 
to-day. I am familiar with these Indians, and observed them. Those 
who left the Santee agency went out without anything at all. I was in 
the governor's office when they brought in their money in five and ten 
cent pieces as they had got them, and paid it on their land. They have 
that land now, and have cultivated it to a certain extent. They left all 
their roving tribal relations the moment they were allowed to become 
citizens of the United States and take up land as any other. Therefore 
that question is settled. If they do leave them and abandon their tribal 
relations they abandon all the money due to that tribe, and it is after- 
ward paid to the other members. However, Congress at its last ses- 
sion was very liberal indeed in authorizing the Secretary of the Interior 
to feed those Indians, if necessary, who had left the tribes of the Santee 
Sioux and gone off and taken up farms, showing that there was a kindly 
feeling toward them. Out of the large appropriations to the Sioux they 
now have authority to feed these Indians, if it should become necessary, 
so that as far as the citizenship is concerned that is arranged for. I do 
not see how the United States could well make citizens of foreigners 
with whom they have treated ; and there is one of the difficulties. If 
they treat with them as a foreign power they cannot well be both a for- 
eign power under a treaty and citizens at the same time; but if they 
are willing to abandon one there is no difficulty. That, however, is an 
open question, which has never reached any judicial decision, and it 
may be well, perhaps, to consider the subject. But the importance ot 
their having land of their own is evident, and those of us who have had 
the subject before us see that we cannot make much progress until that 
is done. There is great jealousy upon the part of some of the tribes. 
The Oneidas have a beautiful tract of land which they are afraid they 
cannot keep. Many of them wish it divided into severalty, but no 
movement can be made in that way unless the tchole tribe can agree; 
and there is the difficulty. It is a very serious subject, but the influence 
we can exert by way of agents from these tribes would influence their 
opinion very much indeed, and we do not believe that they acquire the 
habits of civilized life to any high degree until they do get that influ- 
ence. But then comes difficulty with the Indians in many cases like 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



51 



those you have heard of to-day. When a death occurs, everything is 
parted with. They think a white man is hard-hearted because he lives 
in his house as comfortably after the death of a relative as before. But 
these difficulties have been overcome generally by Christian influence, 
and we have ennobled them and lifted them up. Some of us have seen 
these men persecuted like the early Christians when they dared at the 
time of the death of any of their relations to retain their property and 
to prevent those from taking it who came around like buzzards. But 
the subject of the land question I feel is the one upon which we should 
band together ; for that is the last ditch, it is the last fight, and you and 
I know something about it. You know that we have made the battle 
here. We know there is to be a dreadful fight, and unless we band to- 
gether we will be whipped. 

Mr. Hayden, of Arizona. Mr. Chairman, I never made a public speech 
in my life, but my experience on the frontier makes me feel that I ought 
to speak. We have in New Mexico a perfect title given to all the In- 
dians in New Mexico of all the land they could cultivate, and we see in 
New Mexico along the banks of the Rio Grande towns of Indians per- 
fectly isolated from the balance of the population, and who do not enter 
into their x>olitical matters. They have their farms, their little bands 
of cattle, and seem to be the most happy people in the country. They 
never have been contaminated by contact with the Army, which has 
been kept in the country, and are an exceedingly good people, and it 
seems to me that it arises from the fact that they had these lands and 
that they have had something on which to rest and they had been pro- 
tected in it. As I have been so long on the frontier, of course I enter 
into the feelings of the frontier people, and I am satisfied in my own 
mind that the great difficulty of managing this Indian question in re- 
gard to lands is, that the Government has given them much more than 
the frontier people think they had any use for, or that they could make 
any use of, and they have therefore encroached upon them and driven 
them from one point to another, while if they had given them what they 
could have used, and then educated them, or if you could now sell their 
lands for the purpose of education, it would be much better. If they 
are your wards, can you not take their property and apply it for the 
purposes of elevating the Indians, making them fit for civilization? 
Give them all the land they can possibly use, make a perfect title which 
will never be disturbed, i do not think it will ever be destroyed by the 
frontier people or by anybody else if they only had the land they could 
use, and all they could use, and then they themselves would feel satis- 
fied. We could make them feel that they would always possess that 
land. I am familiar with this subject in Arizona because I have been 
there fourteen years and know a great deal about the Indians. But I 
wanted to call your attention to the fact that there were Indians in the 
United States having lands which were given them by the Spanish go- 
vernment the title to which has never been disturbed, and that these 
Pueblo Indians, as the New Mexican people have told me, are the very 
best citizens they have of the working population. 

The Chairman. We are very glad, indeed, to have heard from Mr. 
Hayden. 

Mr. Janney. Mr. Chairman, this is a subject which I think is very 
important to the welfare of the Indians. As I have had some connec- 
tion with the management of the question I think it right to express 
my views. When I w T ent out as superintendent of the Northern super- 
intendency there were three of the tribes who had the privilege of re- 
ceiving the land in severalty. Perhaps I should say two of them at that 



52 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



time. They were the Omahas, the Santees, and the Winnebagoes. In- 
one of the first councils I held among them this question came up : 
Whether they were willing that the Government should proceed to sur- 
vey this land and allot them in severalty. They were apprehensive 
about it at first. J suppose their apprehension was, that if a portion 
was given to them in small farms of one hundred and sixty or one 
hundred and eighty acres, the remainder would probably be jeopardized — 
that they might be deprived of it. I succeeded in overcoming their ob- 
jections, and they agreed to have their lands divided to them. By a 
treaty with the Omahas they were entitled to one hundred and sixty 
acres to a family, and forty acres, I think, to a single individual. The 
Wiimebagoes had different stipulations, I think. They could receive 
but eighty acres. The survey was made, and it was a long time before 
the certificates came to the Winnebagoes. They only received them a 
few months ago, after waiting, perhaps, two years, owing to delay, I sap- 
pose, in the Land-Office. However, the more fully they came to under- 
stand the importance of it the more did they desire to receive these 
patents, as they are called, or certificates. The certificates granted to 
the Omahas gave them only a possessory title, to descend to their chil- 
dren. They could not alienate their lands ; they could not convey them 
to a white person. They could convey them to the Government alone. 
It was thought necessary, as they are wards of the nation, that they 
should not have the power to dispose of their lands to white men, be- 
cause, if they did so, white men would go among them on the reserva- 
tion 5 would have a right to go there, and would corrupt them, and they 
are so little capable of coping with white people in bargains that it was 
believed they would lose their lands if they had the privilege of selling 
them. That was my impression, and I yet say that I think the arrange- 
ment is a suitable one; but I think they ought to have a permanent 
title. They ought to be secured in the possession of their lands. The 
people of that State are very desirous to have all the Indians removed. 
Their legislature is of that opinion : their governor, while 1 was there, 
recommended it, and the only safety for these Indians is in the protection 
of the Federal Government. I believe that their progress in civilization 
and Christianity depends greatly upon their having permanent homes 
and having those homes improved. That they should be assisted to 
build their houses, have their lands broken and fenced, and have wells 
dug to supply them with water. They will then feel as if they had 
homes ; and that is one of the first steps toward their civilization. My 
impression is that after having received their allotment they would have 
too much land. The Winnebagoes have about ninety thousand acres, 
and the Omahas, of whom there are only about a thousand, have two 
hundred thousand acres. 
A voice. Very fine land, too. 

Mr. Janney. At the last session of Congress a law was passed author- 
izing the survey and sale of fifty thousand acres of land, of the reserva- 
tion of the Omahas, to sell to the white people, the funds to be applied 
to building houses, supplying live stock and agricultural implements, 
and to start an industrial boarding-school. A survey has been made, 
and I suppose about this time they are nearly ready to bring the land 
into market. This will reduce their reservation to one hundred and 
fifty thousand acres, and it will still be ample. Perhaps they could 
spare more, and as there is so much jealousy on the part of the white 
people about their having so large a reservation, I approve of their be- 
ing reduced to a moderate size and the proceeds applied to their benefit. 

The Santees have a possessory title only. There is not a regular res- 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



53 



ervation authorized by Congress. They were merely placed there by 
the President or by the Secretary of the Interior, and their titles, I 
suppose, are simply possessory titles. But if it is necessary to have 
further legislation in order to secure them in these lands they have had 
surveyed and allotted to them, I should think it proper for this body or 
for the Board of Indian Commissioners to advise the right kind of 
measures, and to recommend them to Congress. This important question 
should be acted upon, and wisely acted upon. 

The Chairman. It is not in the province of the chairman to direct 
the course of remarks on this subject, but it seems to me that we hardly 
need any discussion on the importance of having the Indians coming 
to secure possession of their lands. It seems to me the object of dis- 
cussion is, how shall we promote that? and if any gentleman present 
has anything to suggest in that line, it would appear to me to be most 
appropriate. 

Mr. Tatham. Mr. Chairman, this question seems to me to lie at the 
foundation of your success or failure, in regard to the elevation of the 
Indians. I regret to find in the report of the Indian commissioner 
sentiments which, to my mind, are subversive of success. In order to 
justify this country with the practice which has prevailed for a long 
time, he has to go back hundreds of years, when it was supposed that 
kings ruled by divine right, and that whatever they said or did was law 
immutable. I hold in my hand some of his remarks to that effect, from 
which he argues that the Indian has no right to the lands in this 
country at all, except what he derives from the United States Govern- 
ment. He says that in the early history of the western world, the prin- 
ciple was established, as between European nations, that discovery con- 
fers sovereignty upon the government under whose authority the dis- 
covery was made, and the discoverer was accorded the exclusive right 
to acquire the sole possession and title. He then goes on to show that 
the rights of the Indian are nothing but possessory rights. Bishop 
Whipple, in a very interesting speech, quoted the language, although 
I do not know where from, that the land belongs to the saints, and we 
were the saints. That was the common feeling then, but I believe it has 
degenerated into an idea that they have no rights except what they de- 
rive from us. I wish to argue the rights of conquest and that kind of 
thing. If there are any rights of conquest to be given to men, I cannot 
find that Christians can avail themselves of that right, who call them- 
selves the followers of Christ, and whose title must be read in the New 
Testament. We do not have to go back, I think, to those old times 
when might made right. If we take the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence as the foundation of our Government, we find there the 
broadest declaration of human rights, applicable to all men, and not 
at all excluding Indians. If we take up the Constitution of the United 
States we find it very much in accordance with that. Therefore, whether 
we take the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, or 
whether we go back to the higher law, which I think is binding upon 
us as Christians, we do not find any authority to deny to a people pos- 
sessing the land their right to it. They have the right of possession. 
They have had the right of descent from time immemorial, aud who can 
question such a title as that? Who is there in this room who can claim 
a right to any of the Indians' land under any law ? Who is there in the 
United States who can do so? Not a soul. Then why is it that we 
find throughout this report sentiments which seem to ignore the rights 
of Indians because they made treaties with the United States. I will 
grant that, under the laws of the United States made with the Indians^ 



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BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



the Indian gets no title, but he had a title anterior to that of the United 
States which no honest man will question ; and I hold that as men, if 
we want the property of another, whether it be land or whether it be 
goods, we ought to buy it, and pay for it a fair consideration, such as 
they are willing to part with it for. I therefore am prepared to take 
issue with this general feeling that the Indian has no right to the soil. 
He has a right to the soil as much as any of us have. Here is a senti- 
ment which was expressed by the former Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs in referring to certain Indians : " These Indians have never been 
collected upon a reservation, nor brought under the immediate super- 
vision of any agent. So long as their country shall remain unoccu- 
pied and not in demand for settlement by the whites, it will be scarcely 
desirable to make a change in their location." 1 That is the history of 
the whole thing. 

Mr. Welch. That is a particular tribe, is it not ? 

Mr. Tatham. It is applicable to the whole of them. So "long as it 
is not wanted for settlement they ought to be allowed to have it." 

Mr. Welch. That is an argument outside of reservation. 

Mr. Tatham. Undoubtedly. The Indians, in many cases, have ceded 
portions of their territory piece-meal ; but does that destroy their right 
to what is left ? Who had the right before ? When they ceded it, 
when the Government of the United States made a bargain with them, 
under the term of treaties, it was a bargain, an agreement. And when 
they came to the Indians, and made an agreement that they were to 
have so much land that was formerly the Indians', and guaranteeing 
them their possession forever of the balance, we did not take away the 
origiual right of the Indians. It added to it, if it added anything. It 
added the promise of the United States and guaranteed them posses- 
sion. It did not take away their original right. Therefore, it seems 
to me that the assumption that the Indian has no right to the land he 
lives on is something that we as Christians must take issue with. 

Now, I wish to make a few remarks in reference to the Stockbridge 
Indians. This tribe were formerly an intelligent and prosperous people 
not a whit- behind the most advanced race, possessed of good farms, well 
stocked, and industrious ; but, unfortunately for them, they, much ta 
the advantage of the Government — which acquired thereby a valuable 
tract of land for white settlement — removed in 1857 to their present 
place of abode. The change has proved highly detrimental to their in- 
terests and prospects. Their new reservation is, the greater part of it, 
poor, and the soil is seriously affected by the wet seasons and frequent- 
ly by frost, and has never yielded them more than a meager subsist- 
ance. And the Commissioner goes on to describe the miserable effect 
which our paternal Government had inflicted by cheating these men and 
despoiling them of their improved soil and putting them on a place where 
white men would not be content to live. This constant removal and rob- 
bery of the Indians lies at the foundation of your want of success. I 
have traced the history of the action of benevolent people for many 
years ; from the time, I think, of Little Turtle, in seventeen hundred 
and something. Ever since the days of William Penn I And one simi- 
lar thing all the way through : that when an Indian has improved his 
land, and is in a fair way of success, the cupidity and avarice of the 
white man comes in, displaces him, and, by one plea and another, re- 
moves him. Now, I thiuk the proper part is that we must attach them 
to the soil in some way. Generations have gone before you, and, in an 
honest desire to raise this people, the same feeling has actuated the 
hearts of benevolent people before, and yet they have failed, and why ? 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



55 



Because the Indian has not been possessed of the soil. Therefore, it 
seems to me that we must take some measure to attach them to their 
\ land and to maintain their rights. So long as the Indian, or any other 
i human, peaceful being is looked upon as an outlaw having no rights 
which white men are bound to respect, so long as that, your efforts to 
raise them will be futile. How late is it since the colored man attained 
his rights ? I know I am trenching upon another subject. I have seen 
the time when the colored orphan asylum in New York was burned and 
gutted, and when the streets were filled with people carrying away the 
spoils from that institution ; why ? Because there was no protection in 
law- As I have said repeatedly, if Alexander T. Stewart's store in New 
York was known to be beyond the protection of law for six hours, there 
would not be a shred left in it. 

The Chairman. The gentleman I suppose would not have the same 
measures adopted to secure the Indian his rights that was pursued in 
the case of the negro. Can he suggest some remedy? 

Mr. Tatham. Our friends will remember last year I took the same 
ground. Some worthy interested men were afraid of political action. 
We were trenching upon politics, and that was dangerous ground. It is 
the only ground that we can stand on in this country. What is Con- 
gress ? They are the expressed will of the land. Their acts are supreme. 
And what is Congress composed of? The representatives from locali- 
ties all over the United States. Are they interested in this ? Who cares 
for the Indians ? None. Not a voice, unless some benevolent man rises 
up to protect them. There are some benevolent people, and I hope I 
am one of them. But we must increase our number. You who repre- 
sent your Christian denominations numbered by millions must educate 
your people to this point, and in some way ask them to cast their vote 
for you. When you tell these people in the Capitol that votes de- 
pend upon their action then they will come with cap in hand. They 
never will succeed until they exercise the right to vote. What was the 
colored man until he obtained that right ? 1 was one of those whom 
General Howard referred to as doubtful about giving it until they were 
qualified for it. They had no standing. There were none so poor to do 
them reverence, but the instant they obtained a vote you saw the thing 
transformed, and now even some of your members of Congress are 
colored men. The negroes have nothing more to be desired in that 
respect. Give the Indians the right of citizenship and the right to vote, 
and the whole matter is secured. It seems to me there is no other way 
than that, and therefore it seems to me we must turn our attention to 
that. If the gentlemen who represent the different denominations here 
will agree with that, and carry that out and enlist their people in sup- 
port of it, the thing can be done. 

Dr. Backus : Mr. President, I do not propose to be lengthy, but I 
should want hours to discuss this subject full}-. My mind, for four 
years, has been settled upon citizenship, as that to which we must 
come, and I was glad to hear General Howard speak in favor of it. I 
have said it in private, and have said it when and where I thought it 
was proper in public. I do not believe we can stop short of it and 
have peace with the Indians. But I do not know how soon we shall be 
prepared to come to it. I know we took great care of the colored people 
for many years, and for many years the Government thought it was 
cruel to leave them to suffer $ but we have allowed colored people the 
privilege of citizenship, and I think we should now allow the Indians 
the same privilege. But I could stand here an hour and name objec- 
tions to that course. I see serious difficulties ; but I do not see light 



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BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



in any other source than citizenship, and that qualification will carry 
with it homes, property, voting, government — everything. I believe 
the Indians will stand under that work, and do it as well as any of us, 
when they are brought to it. I spent some weeks in the Cherokee 
Nation. I was in the capitol, both in the upper and lower house, day 
after day, when they were in session. The chairman of the upper house 
asked to have a conference. I complied. He named a day, and took a 
whole day in conferring with me on the interests of government, and I 
was very much pleased to have him do so. He gave me much light 
into their matters. They have a printed constitution ; have a printing- 
press, which I helped them to get. 

They print the paper ; they print their own laws ; and, I believe, they 
print for the Government whatever is needed. They conduct their 
business in their upper and lower house with their first, second, and 
third chiefs, under their own regulations, as well as some of our State 
legislatures, in my opinion. I saw that, by dividing their land, they 
could give four hundred acres to each Cherokee who breathes. I think 
I made it by a calculation four hundred and four acres. That could be 
given to a Cherokee or to an adopted citizen. Now, suppose they did 
so. It is said that the whites would cheat them out of it. Then, why 
do not you take care of two-thirds of the poor whites ? Because the 
other third is cheating them out of their land, as they have been 
doing every day since their existence. There is a class of whites who 
cheat the poor whites. Why do not you make wards of them, then ? 
The same thing is done right over here among ourselves, and we 
had better begin at home, and take care of our own poor fellows be- 
fore we go off and take care of the Indians, as I see it. But, a.s:ain : 
Suppose it is so conveyed that a man sells his land, but cannot con- 
vey away that of his wife any more than we can that which belongs to 
our wives. You fix that so that you hold one third of my real estate. 
Well, let the Indian woman hold hers. Provide for her as I have pro- 
vided for my wife, and you may provide for the children if you please. 
But as to the whites going in, I have studied that subject ; I have con- 
versed with Secretary Cox and Secretary Delano, and I say it is the 
mischief of the thing that the whites go in ; I saw several cases. We 
had an excellent student in the school under one of our teachers some few 
years ago. She was the best pupil in the school, and, as onr teacher be- 
lieved, possessed one of the noblest minds and hearts. But she mar- 
ried a loose reckless white fellow, who went in there from nobody could 
find out where. The commissioner said he was well educated, had been 
a scholar somewhere, had been in fine position, and belonged to a family 
of accomplishment. The teacher said that could be seen in him, but 
said he, he has lost it all ; he has gone into the lowest depth of degra- 
dation, and now he has taken my best pupil away and I cannot stop 
him, and day after day I had seen this man in his white skin ride his 
horse into the capitol and then ride out into some settlement of these 
Indians, drinking and carousing, and that was all he did. Any rascal 
can come there, marry an Indian woman and be protected, and more 
peisons rush in there who would otherwise be in State's prison or at the 
gallows than go anywhere else. A large proportion of their white 
population has run away from justice and from the gallows. I met two 
men, each named Hunt ; one was from Michigan and the other from a 
town in Tennessee, I think. I said to one of them, u Are you related V } He 
replied that they were not, and said, " We never met each other until we 
met down here, but one of us has married an Indian woman ; that makes 
him a citizen here, and he hires me to work for him. That he has a 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



57 



right to do, and we are making money hand over fist. We are cutting 
off the lumber for thirty miles around here and the regulations allow it, 
and that Hunt, who married the Indian woman, is a citizen and I am 
his hired man." I said, " Don't you take half the money V y He said "No, 
not while I am here in the territory. I am at work for him because he 
is a citizen." And I see these advantages are taken, and I would rather 
a thousand times that you would let your white mechanics and white 
farmers and white stock-drovers take the land and buy it, and live 
there and be an example for them and show them the use of agricultural 
implements and how to cultivate the land, &c, than to have the class of 
population which now infests that country. I say it would be better to 
give such a white population who could go there and buy the land and 
set a good example and afford protection ; and I say again that the In- 
dians of the Cherokee Nation — and I say it only for illustration — are 
as competent to-day to elect their governor, lieutenant-governor, sena- 
tors, assemblymen, aud justices, as are white men. And they have 
them now. They have their nine judicial districts, their nine judges, 
they have their circuits; they are well arranged, and it needs but .a 
slight change to organize their government into that of a State, allowing 
them representation here at Washington as other States. I say to you, 
as I said to Secretary Delano, " You take these prairie chickens, tie them 
foot to foot by fives or tens, and they will die ; but cut them loose and 
let them stand, and they will take care of themselves." And just so it 
is with these Indians : tied, crippled, and fettered. It is said that they 
do not want citizenship. I talked that all through with my friend, the 
chairman of the upper house. When I first proposed it he seemed 
alarmed, but before I left him he was cheerful at the thought. It used 
to be told us that the colored people did not want their liberty ; that it 
was the worst thing you could give them. I tell you the best thing 
you can give to a human being is citizenship. Let self-reliance take 
possession of a person, and he will make something that he never will 
reach as a ward. The land belongs to them or it does not. If it does 
belong to them, give it to them ; but we give it to them as I give any- 
thing to my little son. I say, u That is yours, but don't you sell it, my 
boy." Well, then, it is not his. The Indians are simply playing that it 
is theirs, while we have everything in our power and do as we please. 
If we want to go through their territory with a railroad, we go. If we 
want to appropriate their property to ourselves, we say it is not theirs. 
I feel assured that the time is coming when we should step forth and 
recognize the rights of these Indians to citizenship and property. If 
they lose their property, they are doing no more than we have done be- 
fore them. More than one-half of us are losing ours, but we go to work 
and get more; we have to do so. If we were all wards and could fall 
back on the Government to bring us food, it might be different. When 
we have happened to have had a hard winter, 1 do not see anything 
but a county-house for a great many whites. Still, " root hog or die " 
is a principle; and let us put them in a position to " root." 

Mr. Eoss. Mr. President, I had not proposed to say a word in rela- 
tion to any of these questions. I came here to listen and not to speak. 
But, as the distinguished gentleman who has just taken his seat has 
referred to the Cherokee country, I hope I shall be excused for saying 
a, few words in relation to the subject now under discussion. Two re- 
marks were made this evening that struck me very forcibly. One was 
by Bishop Whipple. If I caught the idea correctly, it was this : that 
most of the difficulties which occurred with the Indians spring from a 
feeling of despair. That was one idea. And why does that feeling or 



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BOAED OF INDIAN COMMISSIONEKS. 



sentiment exist in the minds of the Indians ! Is it not, simply, sir, be- 
cause there has not been that entire good faith observed toward him 
that ever should be observed, and because the danger is that there is 
to be no snch faith extended, and he is doomed to nothing but disap- 
pointment throughout his whole life ? That is the cause of this senti- 
ment, and I ask this meeting, composed of gentlemen distinguished in 
so many various denominations and in so many walks of life, to bear 
that fact in mind, and let them, so far as their influence and their ac- 
tion may go, keep an eye in regard to legislation that is even now going 
on at the national capital. 

The next sentiment to which my attention was called, if I mistake 
not, was that of the distinguished officer of the Army who visited Ari- 
zona. His idea was simply this : to treat the Indians as he would treat 
any other men. Well, sir, I say so, too. If he is a man and endowed 
as other men, if he has ears to hear, tongue to speak, and heart to feel, 
treat him as a man. If we make a pledge to that man, carry it out. 
If we agree to do a certain thing with him, do it. Now, sir, in regard 
to the Indian Territory, a question has to-day been discussed involving 
the future political condition of that Territory, and of the seventy 
thousand Indians who are there to-day, and others who, in all human 
probability, are to be brought there. You have within the limits of 
that Indian Territory what I conceive to be the hope of the rest of the 
few hundred of thousands of Indians that are left within your limits. 
And I therefore think that this is a question of the gravest importance : 
the manner in which the legislation of this Government shall be con- 
ducted respecting these Indians. I need not tell this honorable meet- 
ing that the most of the Indians who inhabit that Territory were taken 
there from east of the Mississippi. I need not tell this meeting that 
they went there under obligations which are still in existence as a part 
of the plighted faith of the Government of the United States ; that 
they should be protected in their rights ; that that Territory which is 
ceded to them should never in any time to come, without their consent, 
be embraced within the limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory. 
That pledge exists to-day. And so far as the question of title is con- 
cerned, I wish to state that there has recently been a decision of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, growing out of a sale of six hun- 
dred thousand acres, located in the southeast corner of the State of 
Kansas, to Mr. Joy. That case came up before the Supreme Court of 
the United States in such a manner as to involve the question of the 
title that these Cherokees had to that portion of their country, and the 
Supreme Court decided that the Cherokee Indians obtained from the 
Government of the United States a fee-simple title to that country, 
and that that tract of six hundred thousand acres was embraced in the 
same patent executed in 1838 by Mr. Van Buren and the Cherokee Na- 
tion, in which was included also the present strip of country which they 
now occupy. Well, sir, it is in accordance, as I believe, with law, 
common sense, and justice. If it be correct, what is the position which 
the Cherokee Nation occupies to-day in relation to this diminished 
reservation, which is only four million two hundred thousand acres left 
of the fourteen millions of acres that they owned about the time that 
the war commenced f Why, sir, it is theirs. If they own the fee-simple 
title to it, how do you propose to say to these Indians that they shall 
retain only one hundred and sixty acres of it, and that they shall sell 
the remainder of it ¥ It is their own. If they have a right to one foot 
of it, they have a right to it all.. And beside that, the Choctaws and 
Creeks and the Seminoles own their lands in the same way. These 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



59 



Indians have, in my opinion, a fee-simple title to the country that they 
now occupy. It was given to them when that country was not needed ; 
when it was a wilderness, and when it was the policy and the purpose 
of the Government to force them from the States where they then lived. 
Now, if they have a fee-simple title, have you any right to say that they 
shall sell all over a hundred and sixty acres per head ? Why not, upon 
the same principle, go into the States and parcel out all the large planta- 
tions that exist ? I think there ought to be some distinction made in 
legislation in regard to Indians, between the tribes who are considered 
to be civilized and those who are nomadic. They talk about Indians 
indiscriminately. They draw no distinction between the Indians who 
are living to-day by the sweat of their brow, cultivating the soil and 
raisiug stock, and those who have no local habitation, and hardly a 
name. There ought to be a difference in the legislation of the country ; 
but still they ought to be treated as one. My friend, Mr. Backus, thinks 
we have had a bad class of people coming into the Cherokee country. 
We have precisely the same class of people in Washington and in the 
Indian country. We have good, bad, and indifferent. I do not think 
the class of white people, taken as a class, who go into the Cherokee 
country, deserve the reproach to the extent they receive it from the 
hands of persons who frequently speak of whites who go into that 
country. I am very far from indorsing their character. But if that be 
true on the one hand, and that class of people ought to be kept oat of 
the country, how are we to be benefited when we are made citizens, and 
the whole white population is thrown among us indiscriminately ? There 
is an inconsistency in it, it appears to me. If these white people com- 
ing in among us are exerting such a bad influence, will the influence be 
any better when the whole race overflows the land ? There is another 
question of importance involved in regard to the rights of the Indians in 
that country. It is the distinction which is tried to be drawn between the 
rights of the soil and the sovereignty. They say Congress has the right 
to legislate on questions purely political, but that it has no right to 
interfere with the soil. They say, " Therefore we will not regard our 
pledges to you and protect you, but we will extend a territorial govern- 
ment and influence over you." The right of self-government of these 
Indians was a part of the consideration which induced them to remove 
from east of the Mississippi, and I do not see how it is practicable, 
under the circumstances, for any territorial bill at present to be 
passed that will affect the Indians in that Territory, and at the same 
time the good faith of the Government be preserved. I know that 
this is a difficult question. I know it is going to take time to work 
it out, but I am clearly under the impressiou that the policy which 
is pursued in protecting these Indians on their reservations is the 
correct one. I do not know of any Indians in any of the adjoining 
States who are allowed to live there in any peace, who have been 
protected. Nearly all the Indians in Kansas and that section of 
country have been forced away, notwithstanding some of them had 
their land assigned to them in severalty, and had become citizens of 
the United States, as in the case of the Pottawatomies. They had not 
been allowed to remain there, and had been forced by pressure of cir- 
cumstances, not by law, to leave the limits of Kansas, and are now 
domiciled again in the Indian Territory, after having been made citizens 
of the United States, with the declaration of law that, while therein the 
Indian Territory, although they are citizens of the United States they 
shall not claim or enjoy any other rights than Indians in that Terri- 



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BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



tory, who are not citizens. They -make them citizens, and then they 
go down there under these conditions. 

Xow if Indians cannot live in peace on their diminished reservations 
in the State of Kansas, I want to know what inducement they have to 
change their political relations, and ask that they may be overwhelmed 
by a white population ? 

If I thought they were ready for such a change, I would say let it 
come ; but believing they are not prepared, I hope it will not take 
place. I hope more time will be given to these Cherokees, and to the 
neighboring tribes, to develop and improve until they shall become pre- 
pared to enjoy the rights of citizenship. In this connection I may state 
that we have had about sixty schools in operation during the past year. 
We have an orphan asylum, at which we have seventy-five pupils. 
We propose to add $100,000 to it out of the proceeds of the sale of our 
lands. We propose out of the same fund to set aside $100,000 to es- 
tablish an institution for the blind and insane ; $75,000 more out of the 
same source for the purpose of establishing a school, into w r hichwe shall 
introduce destitute children from seven to ten years of age, speaking 
the Indian language almost exclusively, and give them a knowledge of 
the English language. 

And there is where the great difficulty lies between the Indians and 
the whites. There are two difficulties : one is the Indian, as a general 
thing, has not been brought up from early childhood to habits of in- 
dustry; and the next is, w T e find, among these many civilized tribes, 
that a large majority of the people do not understand the English lan- 
guage, and, of course, find it difficult to get along when thrown into 
competition with the whites. Our plan is, as rapidly as possible to 
teach these children the English language, and then teach them the 
higher branches of education if we can, so that whenever these changes 
do take place, (I know they are inevitable, but I hope they will not 
occur at present,) the great mass of our people will be in a condi- 
tion themselves voluntarily to accept of the change in their constitution, 
and not feel that it is going to be their ruin, and involve them in blood- 
shed, as they would feel if the thing were peremptorily pressed upon 
them at present. 

Dr. Ferris. I would like to ask Brother Ross what proportion of the 
Cherokees are not able to speak the English language ? 

Mr. Ross. I merely make an estimate w^hen I say there must be two- 
thirds of them who cannot speak English. 

Mr. Welsh. To bring this matter to a practical point, I would merely 
move that the Board of Indian Commissioners be requested to procure 
such legislation as will enable the Government to give a title to farms 
to Indians ; that seems to me to be all that is necessary. Some little 
legislation is needful. My motion is that the Board of Commissioners 
be requested to consider the propriety of the matter, and act upon it 
if they see fit. 

Mr. Tatham. I should be glad if the representatives of the various 
bodies here would say that we remonstrate against all action tending 
to rob the Indians of their land, and that we will not vote for any 
man, but will do all we can to prevent the return of any man, who casts 
a vote in that direction. 

The motion of Mr. Welch was carried unanimously. 

Mr. Welch. As to the administration of law, there is one bill which 
has just passed the Senate, providing for the appointment of five inspect- 
ors, who are to visit each year every Indian reservation with special 
reference to seeing how far law is administered, and in what way it 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



61 



can be administered. Congress sees the difficulty, and they are en- 
deavoring to remedy it. 

General Howard. Mr. President, I think, on the subject of the law, 
that the suggestions of Bishop Whipple were right to the point. I saw, 
all through Arizona, that there was a necessity for some legislation be- 
yond anything which now exists ; that certainly there should be some- 
body clothed with judicial authority. A great complaint arises in 
Arizona that crime is not punished. That is true. There is no pun- 
ishment for crime unless you bring the army and shoot right into 
a whole tribe, although the depredations may have been committed 
by but a few. If there were magistrates to punish the guilty it would save 
the Pimas from a great deal of unmerited accusation, and it would be 
the same with the Papagos. In speaking some time ago in respect to 
citizenship, I had in mind especially these tribes. They need men of 
judicial functions. In the different pueblos in New Mexico they have 
their own methods of government. All ought to be under some law, so 
that all will feel that when murders are committed the criminal may be 
brought to justice and punished, be he white or be he Indian. 

Mr. Welch. I would be glad to hear whether the Board of Indian 
Commissioners have that subject especially before them. The chair- 
man is xight. He has seen the evil. It must be remedied in some way. 
We find it utterly impossible in the Indian country, unless we are near 
some fort, to obtain justice. People may depredate and do anything 
they please ; there is no law. 

The Chairman. Will Mr. Brunot give us information on that point ? 

Mr. Brunot. Our board have again and again had that question be- 
fore them, and in our visits to the Indians we have constantly had be- 
fore us evidences of the necessity of some civil laws which may be ex- 
tended over certain tribes. It would be utterly impracticable to extend 
our civil law over all the Indian tribes without doing a vast deal of 
mischief. The exercise of the plainest law over some of the wild tribes 
would be simply and necessarily considered by them as an act of war. 
They are not capable of understanding it in any other way, and until 
they are taught better there is no wisdom in proposing to extend civil 
law over such tribes. On the other hand, there are other tribes of In- 
dians as capable of being ruled by the civil laws of our country as our- 
selves, and I believe that, if these laws were extended over them, there 
would be far less crime committed within these communities than in 
any white community I know of relatively to the population. I may 
mention one or two incidents. Take, for instance, a tribe I visited a few 
years ago where there had been eleven murders of Indians by Indians 
within a year, and yet no adequate punishment could be administered 
for the simple reason that the first attempt of the superintendent to 
secure the punishment of one of these murderers was resisted by attor- 
neys among the whites, and the person was discharged by the court. I 
found, at one place, two Indians weariug a ball and chain under the 
superintendent's sentence of six months at hard labor for murder. 
They were very anxious, at the close of the council, to have the oppor- 
tunity of appealing to me against the supposed wrong being perpetrated 
upon them by the superintendent. I agreed to hear them, and after the 
council they came. I said, in answer to their question as to why the 
superintendent was allowed to make them wear these chains and to 
work, " What does he punish you for 1" u For killing a man.' 7 I said, 
" Did you kill him F They replied, " Yes, we killed; him but then we 
had a right to do it— he killed one of our friends." And that was all 
their idea of law; yet these people were working as white men work and 



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BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



among white men. Tbey wore the clothing of civilized men, some of 
them spoke English well, and were as well fitted for the possession of 
citizenship as white people of a similar class in that part of the country. 
That is one illustration. Perhaps another, which occurred in the same 
region, would be still more striking. Three or four years ago an order 
was issued that as slavery had been abolished within the limits of the 
United States, the President could not permit slavery to exist among 
the Indians. Consequently it became necessary that a number of per- 
sons of other tribes held among the Indians should be allowed to go 
back to their friends. There was one man who could read and write 
and had what is called a good common-school education, and was at 
that time in the employ of the superintendent of Indian affairs of the 
Territory. He had in his family a slave, an Indian girl, whom he re- 
garded as a member of his family. I believe they were greatly attached 
to her, and she occupied almost the relation of one of the children. 
When this order was given to him and he was required to free the girl, 
he quietly said, u I will free my slave in my own way," and he deliber- 
ately went home and shot her. That man could not be punished, 
although the incident occurred almost in the suburb of one of the 
western towns, simply because the civil law of the country could not be 
exercised over the Indians. Such had been the decision of the courts. 
The thing had been attempted, and it could not be done. A more strik- 
ing illustration than this probably would not be needed, and I presume 
even these were not needed to convince the gentlemen present of the 
necessity of some action. 

Then on the other point of the necessity of such extension of civil 
law there, as shall protect the Indians against the whites, as well as 
against each other, I mention a single instance. On the borders of the 
Indian Territory, in a town containing a population of some hundreds, 
not more than three years ago, an Indian was lying in a saloon on a 
bench asleep. I believe he was not intoxicated. Several young men 
entered the saloon, and one of them said, he believed he would kill that 
Indian. He took out his revolver, and shot at the sleeping man as he 
lay on the bench, and killed him. After the deed was done, it was 
thought there might possibly be some punishment attempted. The 
father of the murderer was the judge of the court. The judge was 
immediately sought. He was aroused at midnight, was consulted 
on the subject, and at once organized his court, assembled a jury, tried 
the criminal, acquitted him, and the next day he was a free man, and 
none could touch him for the crime he had committed. That, I presume, 
is a sufficiently striking illustration of the difficulty of obtaining justice 
for the Indians in some quarters of the border. 

Kow, sir, as to the remedy, our board have done what we could in the 
way of public recommendation in several reports ; and, in the report just 
printed, we have asked or recommended that a law should be enacted 
which will authorize the President of the United States, at his discre- 
tion, to extend the civil law by proclamation over any Indian tribe 
where he should deem it proper. I know of no other plan by which 
this thing can be reached without doing a degree of damage in some 
quarters, not perhaps equal to, but approximating in some degree the 
good it would do in others. I hope the gentlemen present will use what- 
ever influence they may have with the members of Congress to induce 
the enactment of such a law as this which we have recommended. 

The Chairman, I suppose it is drawing near the time to close the 
discussion. There is one question, however, wiiich I would like to ask 
Mr. P>runot in relation to this suggestion to Congress, and that is whether 



JOURNAL OF SECOND ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 



63 



it is accompanied with this condition : that the President have authority 
to extend the laws of the United States, or such laws as are applica- 
ble over the Indians, whenever they consent to it. If it does not em- 
brace that condition, then we rim counter to the principle of our whole 
treatment of the Indian nations, as a separate organized or unorganized 
independent body. The whole policy of the Government has been 
hitherto to treat with them, and the moment you begin to treat with 
them you treat with them as outside persons, over whom we have no 
other authority than those which are secured to us by treaty. And it 
seems to me that any recommendation to Congress to empower the 
President thus to act should be accompanied with this condition, 
" whenever they are prepared to receive it." 

Mr. Brunot. I would state in reply, and as additional information on 
the subject, that at the reservation on the west coast from which I have 
taken my illustrations, the Indians have for years desired that there 
should be protection to their lives by the extension over them of law 
for the punishment of crimes. Nearly all the treaties provide that the 
civil law of the United States may be extended over the Indians at some 
time, I believe, when they shall be deemed fitted for it ; shall abandon 
their tribal relations, and express the wish to become citizens. That is 
the usual provision. But, I think, that this civil law should be extended 
over them, even though they shall not be entitled to the privilege 
of citizenship. I do not wish to be misunderstood. I think many of 
these people are fitted for citizenship now, and should have that privi- 
lege. But I do not wish that they shall wait for this protection to their 
lives until the Government is ready, or the people around them are 
ready to concede to them that privilege. 

Mr. Tatham. Mr. Chairman, I believe it is a well-settled principle of 
law that crime committed in any jurisdiction is subject to that juris- 
diction. If an Englishman, for instance, were to commit a murder 
here he is liable to the law here. I do not say that in the instance of 
murder mentioned by Mr. Brunot the prisoner was not amenable to 
the law of the land. It was not, as I understand him, committed on a 
reservation. The difficulty is that these Indians are held to be outlaws, 
and to have no standing in court, and Avhere that ruling comes from I 
cannot understand. We took some action in reference to this matter 
last year, x>resented a memorial to Congress, and I know it had great 
effect upon them. If it had been followed up Congress was ready, as I 
was informed, to enact a suitable law. But nothing has been done. It 
seems to me it is necessary, when we ask or recommend to Congress any 
action, that we should be prepared with some provision to that end. 
There is no use in making a general request ; they have no time to at- 
tend to it. You must first have the thing clearly arranged ; then wait 
upon them and give your reasons, and I have no doubt you will succeed. 

The Chairman. In other words, the gentleman thinks that it would 
be expedient for the Board of Commissioners, or some person connected 
with them, to prepare a bill such as they think Congress should enact 
and put it into the hands of some member of Congress who will see that 
it is properly presented. To pass a resolution and ask Congress to do 
something without ourselves furnishing them with an idea of what we 
want done is just to do nothing. 

Adjourned to meet at 11 a. m. to-morrow. 

The meeting was held, pursuant to adjournment, at 11 o'clock a. m., 
Thursday, January 16. 

Rev. George Whipple was requested to continue as chairman, and Rev. 
J. G. Brown was elected secretary. 



64 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 



After some discussion, the following resolution was adopted: 
Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to wait upon the 
President to inform him of the substance of the reports given by the 
several delegations representing the progress of the work in which we 
have been engaged, and to communicate our high gratification with the 
sentiments expressed by him in his letter to a Hon. Geo. H. Stuart, of 
the Board of Indian Commissioners, October 26, 1872, in which, refer- 
ring to a rumor of a contemplated change in the policy, he said: 

Such a thing has not been thought of. If the present policy toward the Indians can be 
improved in anyway I will always be ready to receive suggestions on the subject; but it 
any change is made it must be on the side of the civilization and christianization of the 
Indians. I do not believe our Creator ever placed the different races of men on this earth with 
the view of having the stronger exert all his energies in exterminating the weaker. If any 
change takes place in the Indian policy of the Government, while I hold m}' present office, 
it will be on the humanitarian side of the question. 

The following gentlemen were named as the committee: Rev. George Whipple, chair- 
man; Benjamin Tatham, esq., Rev. J. M. Ferris, D. D., Rev. Dr. Dashiell, and John A. 
King. esq. 

The committee called upon the President, and having performed the 
duty assigned them, the following letter was addressed to the President 
by the chairman : 

Washington, D. C, January 16, 1873. 

To the President of the United States : 

A meeting of representatives of the various missionary and other organization co-operat- 
ing with the Government in the care of the Indians, was held at Washington, on the 15th 
and IGth of January instant. 

The representatives present, deeply impressed with the very gratifying reports of the suc- 
cessful working of the peace policy of the administration, and the very encouraging results 
of their missionary labors in connection with it, unanimously 

" JResolvtd, That a committee of five be appointed to wait upon the President, to inform 
him of the substance of the reports given by the several delegations representing the pro- 
gress of the work in which we have been engaged, and to communicate our high gratifica- 
tion with the sentiments expressed by him in his letter to a member of the board of Indian 
commissioners, October 2b', Jb72, in which, leferring to a rumor of a contemplated change iu 
the policy, he said : 

"'* Such a thing has not been thought of. If the present policy toward the Indians can he 
improved in any way, I will always be ready to receive suggestions on the subject, but if 
any change is made, it must be on the side of the civilization and christianization of the 
Indian. I do not believe our Creator ever placed the different races of men on this earth 
with the view of having the stronger exert all his energies in exterminating the weaker. If 
any change takes place in the Indian policy' of the Government, while I hold my present 
office, it will be on the humanitarian side of the question. 

" 'U. S. GRANT.'" 

The following gentlemen were named as the committee : Rev. George Whipple, chairman 
Benjamin Tatham, esq., Rev. J. M. Ferris, D. D , Rev. Dr. Dashiel, John A. King, esq. 

The committee having waited on you in person, and collectively and individually ex- 
pressed to you their high appreciation of the policy referred to, their great gratification at 
the success reported from all parts of the field, and their profound conviction that a few years' 
continuance of that policy will place it beyond the fear of hostile intervention, and insure 
its ultimate triumph in the civilization of the Indians, it only remains for me, Mr. Presi- 
dent, to assure you of the continued and cordial co-operation of the various bodies repre- 
sented in the meeting, and implore for you the continued presence and blessing of Almighty 
God. 

Very respectfully and truly yours, &c, 

GEORGE WHIPPLE, 

Chairman of the Committee. \ 

THOMAS K. CREE ; Secretary 

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